


Brothers In Armor

by sheepishshipper



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Brothers, Family, Friendship, Hiro Hamada & Tadashi Hamada are Brothers, Not Incest, no Hidashi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-03-08 20:42:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3222767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheepishshipper/pseuds/sheepishshipper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tadashi manages to escape the SFIT fire with his life, but his life is altered when some of the damage proves to be permanent. Hiro helps his brother get back on his feet, and when the brothers find one of his microbots behaving oddly, they decide to investigate. Who knew they'd end up gearing up for battle with their friends to try and stop Yokai and retrieve Hiro's stolen tech?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Its sheepishshipper with another multi-chapter story that I will finish if it kills me. This is my first BH6 fic, and I've only seen the movie twice so bear with my characterization. The prologue is REALLY short and I debated posting it, but it's just a Prologue after all so here it is. My medical knowledge is minimal at best, so if I really mess something up lemme know! Last but not least, this fic is inspried by Runescratch's Armor!Tadashi AU, please check out her tumblr and her art, its amazing! Please enjoy :D  
> http://runescratch.tumblr.com/

_“Tadashi don’t!”_

_“Professor Callaghan is still in there, someone has too help!”_

_Retreating figure. Ninja’s hat. Roaring flames. Explosion. Ringing ears. Raging inferno. Tadashi. Tadashi. Tadashi. Tadash- Tada- Ta-_

_“TADA-NII!”_

Hiro jolts awake, head flying up from stiff sheets, adrenaline thrumming in his veins and salty tears beading in the corner of his eyes as he breathes harshly in the room void of sound except for the constant beep of a heart monitor and breath of a ventilator. His heart beat echoes rapidly in his ears and his throat is still sore from smoke inhalation. He looks around the room from his chair, craning his head to search for Aunt Cass on the couch, and is surprised to see her gone. He stretches and winces when his sore back protests, before glancing down at his older brother, and swallowing against a tight throat before looking away again.

Miraculously, Tadashi had managed to escape the fire and subsequent explosion with his life, albeit narrowly. Somehow the explosion had blown him back into an area of the building that was more stable and less, well, on fire, resulting in minor burns to his arms, face and upper torso. However, his older sibling’s legs and back had been far less fortunate. When the firefighters found him, thankfully quite quickly upon their arrival on scene, he’d been unconscious on his stomach with his legs pinned under smoldering debris, a couple pieces littering his back as well. Hiro now sat and watched his older brother, still under the effects of general anesthesia to keep him asleep during the worst of the pain, who had yet to wake up in three days since his arrival at the hospital.

Swallowing again, he glanced at his older brothers legs, wrapped up in bulky gauze that was coated with antibacterial medicine. Murmurs of permanent nerve damage echoed in his ears from a conversation he wasn’t intended to hear. Tears slipped down his face, and he sniffled a bit in the quiet, rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket. Tadashi would more than likely never be able to stand again, let alone walk or run… Salty water stings his eyes and drips off his chin as he hiccups softly.

 _‘I’m so sorry, Tada-nii…’_ His brother, a fairly active 21 year old, would never leave a wheelchair. He’d never practice karate with his little brother again, wouldn’t be able to come to the rescue after a bot fight gone wrong, wouldn’t even be able to drive them to SFIT after an early morning rush. He’d never be able to hang Hiro from his shoulders, bouncing around, telling him to look for a different angle –Hiro freezes at the thought of his brother’s optimistic catch phrase, breath still stuttering and tears still leaking from his eyes. He scrubs them furiously with his sleeve once more, the beginnings of an idea forming in his mind when a warm hand presses in between his shoulder blades, and he startles, before realizing its Aunt Cass, pressing a cup of warm tea into his hands, her face red and splotchy from crying, although she smiles at him softly. No words pass between them as she hands him the cup, simply opting to go lay down on the couch as they waited for the dawn of the next day. Hiro studied his older brother’s face, reaching gripping his hand tightly, sniffing once more before giving a small smile as the idea began to form more fully, looking more plausible by the minute. He gave his older brother’s hand a squeeze before speaking.

“I’m not giving up on you, Tada-nii.” With that he released Tadashi’s hand and pulled a blank note pad off the table by the bed, starting to hastily outline the design and writing notes on how to achieve it. In the top corner, he wrote “microbots” and underlined it a few times for emphasis.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Back with the next chapter because I've received a lot of feed back and it made me wanna post more~ I’ll prolly update on a weekly-two week basis, I am a very busy person so bear with me if it’s late. This chapters still kind of short but I wanted to cut it off here for reasons. Upon a little more research, Tadashi is not in the ICU of a burn unit, and although it doesn’t usually happen, Aunt Cass somehow managed to convince the patient care manager to allow her and Hiro to stay in Tadashi’s room at night. Please enjoy!

Hiro scribbled in the notebook rapidly, handwriting sloppy and unintelligible to anyone who would have looked at it due to the fact that his thoughts were moving at a pace that his hand could not keep up with, piecing together the technology he’d need bit by bit. The draft had taken Hiro much longer than a project usually would because he wanted to make sure everything was precise and perfect, and that there were no errors in his calculations. He’d yet to contact the others and ask for their help in gathering material, mostly because he was stumped on one particular part of the project. Scribbling out another design furiously, he groaned in frustration, dropping the pad on a nearby table and standing to stretch. As a nurse came in declaring it was time to replace Tadashi’s bandages, and Hiro decided to make good on his promise to Aunt Cass (who was forced to return to work at the café to start getting ready to pay for future medical bills) to head to the cafeteria and eat, bidding his brother a quiet farewell with the promise of returning quickly. He left the room, only to be met by Fred, Gogo, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon.

“Hiro!” Honey Lemon calls, smiling a hello as the group makes their way over to him. Classes had yet to start back, so the group had taken to visiting often, although today’s was poorly timed.

“Hey guys.” He says, and Honey Lemon gives him a hug.

“How’s Tadashi?” Wasabi asks, and Hiro shrugs.

“Pretty much the same. They took him off the ventilator after the last skin graft but decided to keep him under for a little while longer until they made sure he was healing up alright. They’re changing his bandages right now so you can’t go in though.” The group frowns at that, and Gogo mutters,

“I told you we should have called first.” Hiro shrugs again at the comment.

“I was gonna go get some food.” Hastily Hiro adds, “You could come if you want.” Honey Lemon and Wasabi smile, and Fred says,

“Sure thing dude, I haven’t eaten yet and I’m totally starved.” Gogo pops her gum and gives a small nod in agreement, and they make their way down to the cafeteria, each ordering some variety of lunch before taking a seat at one of the tables. Changing Tadashi’s bandages could take anywhere from a half hour to an hour and a half, so the group ate slowly, chatting about nothing in particular.

“Hey, guys?” Hiro says eventually, staring down at the chicken sandwich he’d been eating, before looking up at the group. The conversation they’d been having with Fred about how, no, mind reading was _not_ science is paused, and all heads turn to him.

“Yeah, Hiro?” Honey Lemon asks softly, and Hiro pauses, debating with himself momentarily.

“Do you have the code for Tadashi’s lab?” The group passes confused glances at each other, before Wasabi speaks.

“Well, yeah, but what do you need it for little man?” He scowls slightly at the nickname, but his face clears as he tries come up with a reasonable explanation. He didn’t want to tell anyone just yet…

“I-uh-,” Wracking his brain for an excuse, a certain white marshmallow of a robot comes to mind. “I wanted to get Baymax! Yeah, my brothers nurse bot, y’know, for when he gets home.” Understanding alights in the others’ eyes, but Gogo eyes him suspiciously.

“Sure thing dude, when school gets back in we’ll let you in!” Fred offers, and Hiro frowns. He’d need more time than that to develop it properly. Besides, he only needed a few pieces of tech…

“I was hoping I could get in sooner, I need to, um, make sure Baymax’s programming on burn protocol is up to date.”

“I’m going in tomorrow to pick up some papers I left, I could pick you up on the way there.” Hiro smiles gleefully at Wasabi’s offer. _‘Perfect.’_ He thinks, and nods.

“That’d be great, thanks!”

“Alright, now that’s done, what about a device that shows peoples thoughts like a movie…”

* * *

 

By the time everyone finished lunch, the nurse had finished changing Tadashi’s bandages, and they were allowed in the room once more. Only two could visit at a time, so Gogo and Honey Lemon went first, followed shortly by Fred and Wasabi. After the group had finished, they headed out, and Hiro was left alone with his brother for a few hours, finalizing the concept and starting a new design for the microbots’ neurocranial transmitter, trying to improve the coding and get rid of the delay between thought and motion.

Aunt Cass came by after closing up the shop early, bringing a few sweets along with her, and talked with nephew for a little while over donuts, before the doctor called her out of the room. Hiro’s pencil paused on the notebook as he listened.

“…taking him off the anesthesia… seems to be doing well… legs… physical therapy might help but… infection… still possible… unlikely…” Aunt Cass nodded along, listening attentively, and Hiro’s mood skyrocketed. They were taking Tadashi off the anesthetic! He'd be waking up! Almost as quickly as it improved, it fell again at the thought of his brother finding out about his legs, and Hiro shook his head viciously at the thought. That was why he'd come up with his invention, everything would be fine. Despite this thought his mood was still dampened as he realized he couldn't tell Tadashi about it until he was positive it would work, wary of providing false hope. He stared at his older brother for a moment, before Aunt Cass turned to come back in, and Hiro returned his gaze to his notebook, moving his pencil once more. Aunt Cass pulled a chair next to him, and he looked up at her as she sat. She smiled back, but it was unsure, and Hiro immediately knew what was coming.

“How’s my little college man?” She says, grin widening slightly at the nickname. Hiro scrunches his nose at the word “little”, but decides to let it go for today and shrugs in response, remaining silent. He did not want to have this conversation. “What are you working on?” She tries again, stalling, and it becomes apparent to Hiro that she wanted to talk about it about as much as he did, and he carefully hides the notebook from prying eyes in response.

“Nothing much. What’s up Aunt Cass?” _‘Better to get it over with,’_ Hiro thinks with a grimace, and Aunt Cass’s face falls a bit, before she smiles sadly at him.

“You’re just too smart for me. You already know, don’t you? About his legs?” Hiro pauses for a bit, before nodding, refusing to look his aunt in the eyes. She scoots closer, and pulls the younger boy into her arms. “Oh sweetheart, it’ll be okay. Nothing’s going to change, I promise. He’ll just need a little bit of help sometimes.”

“Yeah.” Hiro mumbles in response, heart dropping to his stomach. It seemed more surreal before, but now his aunt had just confirmed it, and reality was harsh, so harsh. His throat tightened, and Hiro willed the tears away fiercely, upset with himself for getting worked up over something he already knew. Aunt Cass cards fingers through his hair, and he brings his arms up to give her a tentative hug in response. Aunt Cass gives a final squeeze, before pulling back, one hand on his shoulder and the other reaching up to swipe tears off her own face.

“Besides, if I’ve learned anything raising you two knuckleheads it’s that in a month or two you’ll have something invented to walk for him!” She says with a laugh, and Hiro’s eyes widen.

“Hahaha…yeah… wouldn’t that be something.” He laughs nervously, and Aunt Cass claps her hands together.

“Alright, enough of the bad stuff.” Her tone lifts, and she smiles as she speaks. “They’re taking him out of the coma,” Hiro flinches internally at the wording, it’d always seemed so much more… permanent to him, “so he’ll be awake soon!” Hiro grins at her, feigning surprise.

“Really? That’s great!” Well it wasn’t a lie, he was excited to have his brother finally awake. Aunt Cass stares at him for a moment, before sighing in defeat.

“You knew that too, huh?” Hiro gives his aunt a nervous grin, and she starts laughing in response, and it’s not long before her laughter infects him, and they spend the rest of the night talking and smiling.

* * *

 

Wasabi came early in the morning, eight o’clock sharp, and after having the doctors confirm that Tadashi would still be experiencing the effect of the anesthesia until at least late afternoon, he slipped his notebook into his backpack (the clothes that had been in there emptied onto the couch in a rumpled mess) and jumped into the car. The trip was quiet except for the murmur of the radio and occasional comment on bad driving from Wasabi, and they arrived quickly at their destination.

“Alright, I’ll be at my station when you’re done, I want to adjust the lasers really quick and then grab those papers I needed.” He says, tapping the code in quickly. “The code’s 0611, in case you get locked out or something.” Hiro pauses, swallowing against an almost instantly tight throat. Wasabi glances at him after Hiro pauses on the threshold.

“You alright little man?” Hiro shakes his head to clear it.

“Yeah, just… the code, it’s my birthday.” He says absent mindedly as he walks in. Wasabi gives him a smile.

“Well yeah, people usually use dates important to them as passwords because it’s easy to remember.”

“Yeah…” Hiro gives a small smile at the thought, before glancing back at Wasabi. “I should only be a few minutes.” Wasabi nods, and leaves the room, the door swinging shut softly behind him. Hiro wanders around, glancing at the not-so-organized space. He walks over to the left side, deeming the right less likely to have what he was looking for. He thumbs through materials on the desk, none of them quite fitting, although he borrows a few tools he hoped Tadashi wouldn’t mind him taking, and kneeled down to thumb through some boxes.

_‘Com’on I know there has to be some spare parts around here somewhere!’_ He thinks, groaning when all he finds in the first box are some programing chips. He pushes it back under and pulls out another, grinning in triumph when he checks inside. _‘Perfect…’_ He pulls out some pieces that looked like they were spare parts from Baymax’s skeleton, and dropped a few in his bag. _‘I should have enough material in the garage for the printer…’_ He thinks, leaving the carbon-fiber in the box and pushing it back, standing and walking over to the desk with Baymax’s schematics and programing on the glass screen. He gives it a quick once over, nodding in approval as he walks over to the tool box and pull open a few drawers, taking a few fine tuning tools that were more precise than the ones he owned, and a few sensor chips and high powered processors. _‘Sorry Bro, gonna have to borrow these.’_ He’s about to walk out the door again, backpack straps biting into his shoulders with the weight of it, when he remembers the reason Wasabi thinks he’s here. He turns around and walks over to the red box in the back, pulling up the handle on the back and leaning it on the wheels before walking out and heading across the empty lab over to Wasabi’s section.

The laser induced plasma had just been flicked off when Hiro arrived, and Wasabi was placing his tools back in their places, a stack of paper sitting next to him. He looks up at the sound of wheels on tiled floor, and gives Hiro a smile.

“Ready to go?”

“Yup.”

* * *

 

There wasn’t much Hiro could do at the hospital with what he’d gathered. Wasabi had offered to take him back to his aunt’s café, but he’d declined in favor of waiting for his brother to wake up, which resulted in a heavy backpack filled with material being hidden behind Baymax’s charging station in the corner of the room. Hiro supposed the design could use a little more work, so he grabbed his blue notebook and flipped open to the pages he’d dedicated for his project, noting a few things in the margins and getting to work to figure out what he’d have to machine at home.

* * *

 

There was a few moments of lucid consciousness, but before his muddled brain could form a coherent thought it was gone again, swept away in murky waters.

* * *

 

Muttering. A frustrated groan. It sounded familiar. Tadashi wanted to see who it was, but fell back into the depths of unconsciousness before he could even think about opening his eyes.

* * *

 

He felt far away, like he was flying, but surely that couldn’t be possible, people couldn’t fly. Could they? He tries to shift, and something burns through his body, but it’s less pain and more of an irritating pulse, and he’s too detached from feeling to realize that it hurt, so he does it again. The pain returns slightly more fierce, and he realizes that, oh, yeah, that is his own pain he’s feeling, maybe he shouldn’t do that.

“Tada-nii?” The voice is quiet, hopeful, and excited. And very familiar. Why couldn’t he place a name? Surely he knew his own brother’s- oh, that’s right, Hiro! He tries to open his eyes, and is surprised to find out that, wow, that took a lot of effort, at least a few minutes of willing them to open. It’s so blurry he can’t make out a thing, and he wonders why he bothered for a moment, before he blinks and he realizes that with every short close of his eyes, the world got clearer! There’s laughter besides him.

“Bro you’re flying higher than a kite right now.” So he was flying! When did they manage that, he was sure people didn’t have wings yet…

“No, not actually flying,” a fit of giggles, “I meant you’re drugged up.” Oh. Well that sucked, flying would have been pretty cool. Wait, why was he drugged up? The laughter stops, and Tadashi manages to put in enough energy to tip his head to the side and eye his younger brother. And wait, when could his little brother read minds? Another laugh, although it’s quieter, and his brother’s face doesn’t look happy.

“I can’t read minds, you’re saying everything out loud.” Oh. Oops. He laughs at the revelation, and suddenly everything is just so funny, he can’t stop.

“You alright Tada-nii?” Hiro sounds worried. Tadashi is already losing the battle against sleep.

“I’m fiiiiiiiineeeeeee, although I can’t feeeeeeel my leeeeeeegs!” He says with a dopey grin and a laugh, forgetting to mention he couldn’t feel much of anything so high off of morphine for that matter, and falls back asleep, missing the look of pain that takes over his brother’s features.

* * *

 

The next time he wakes up its late, and although that strange detached feeling still remains everything is a lot clearer. He opens his eyes to a white ceiling, with a strange beeping in his ear and something blowing in his nose. He crinkles it at the feeling but can’t bring himself to raise a hand and do anything about it. He turns his head in the low light of the room, and finds a head of scruffy black hair drooling on his mattress. No it wasn’t his- where was he? He turns his head again, and a heart monitor answers his question. The hospital, but why was he- oh. SFIT. The fire. Running in after Professor Callaghan.

_“Tadashi, don’t!”_ He grimaces at the memory, reprimanding himself internally. He hadn’t gotten twenty feet inside when he realized what a grave mistake he’d made, heard a loud noise -explosion, maybe?- before his memory blanked out and switched to the hospital.

His mouth was dry and his body felt numb while his mind was still clouded, something he attributed to morphine, more likely than not. He looks at his younger brother once more, and his heart drops.

Hiro has dark bags under his eyes, like he hasn’t been sleeping well, his hair is even more ruffled and tangled than usual, and his face is red, like he’d been crying recently. Guilt fills his heart, and Tadashi realizes Hiro had almost became the last Hamada. It takes a minute, but he manages to lift his hand and set it on his younger brother’s head.

“I’m so sorry, Otouto.” The name from their Japanese heritage falls from his mouth without him really intending it, Hiro had asked Tadashi long ago to stop calling him that, but he doesn’t bother correcting it. The boy twitches under his hand, before opening groggy eyes as Tadashi pulls his hand away and smiles at his younger brother as Hiro wipes drool off the side of his face.

“Hey, Hiro.” He says softly, and Hiro’s head whips up to stare at his brothers face before his own lights up like Christmas.

“Tada-nii!” Tadashi’s eyes widen at the address and he’s thrown back a few years for a moment, before small arms wrap around him, and boy does he feel _that_. A groan of pain slips from his mouth and Hiro releases him at once, panic in his eyes. “Oh, crap, they told me not to do that, are you-” Hiro’s cut off by a laugh and a raised eyebrow.

“What was that?” Of course all Tadashi would pick up out of that was one word in particular.

“Uhhh, Crud…?” He says with a nervous smile, and Tadashi nods.

“I thought so.” Tadashi smiles back, and Hiro whacks his arm, glaring at his older brother.

“Don’t ever do that again you idiot!” He says, a pout on his face that’s breaking into a grin, and the guilt slams into him even harder than before, twisting his heart at the thought of leaving his baby brother, the unsaid _“you scared me!”_ stabbing through him.

“I’m so sorry Otouto.” He repeats his comment from earlier, the name just sounding _right_ , “I didn’t mean to scare you.” His brother mumbles something, and Tadashi just barely catches the, “Yeah, well you did,” before his little brother turns.

“Aunt Cass!” The sleeping figure on the couch startles. “Tadashi’s awake!” Aunt Cass gets up in a rush and hurries over, and Tadashi smiles at her in return.

“Oh, baby, you’re awake!” She says gleefully, gripping his arm tightly, wary of the minor bandages on his forearm, and placing a hand on his face while Tadashi laughs lightly. “How do you feel?” Aunt Cass would later regret asking, because it caused Tadashi to stop and really evaluate, and she watched as her older nephew, her adopted boy, paled in panic as he realized something was very, very wrong.

The detached feeling morphine gave was similar to numbness, but not at the same time, so it’s no wonder he didn’t realize it at first. As the older boy took stock of his injuries, he felt the odd disconnect when he moved, maybe a twinge of pain far away, more of a sense of pressure than actual hurt, but was pleased to realize his arms hadn’t sustained serious injury. However, the feeling in his legs was completely different. There wasn’t that odd feeling that morphine gave, no, much to his horror, there was _nothing._ As in, he didn’t even know if they were there or not. A quick flick of his eyes assured him that yes, they were there, but he couldn’t feel them.

“I-I can’t feel them. I can’t feel my legs.” He states, mouth dry, and he watches as Hiro looks at his feet, and Aunt Cass gave him a pained look, before glancing over at Hiro. His younger brother seemed to read the look well, and gave his brothers hand a squeeze, looking Tadashi firmly in the eye, and for all his panic and anxiety, Tadashi paused for a moment in pride because his little brother, the boy he’d helped raise alongside their aunt, had never looked more like a determined adult in his life than when he spoke in that moment, and Tadashi was struck with a realization that his baby brother was growing up.

“It’ll be alright Tada-nii.” Hiro looked at his aunt. “I’m gonna go get the doctor.” His aunt nodded in response, and Tadashi had the terrible feeling he’d been left out of the loop of something major. Aunt Cass swallows, and gives Tadashi a pained smile before speaking.

“I-” she swallows against the lump in her throat, “I wanted to tell you myself before they came in and explained all the medical jargon I missed.” A pained laugh, and Tadashi knew this wasn’t going anywhere good. Aunt Cass sat down beside him, gripping his hand, and Tadashi gave a slight squeeze back. “When they found you, in the building, you were-uhm, you were pinned under some wreckage. Your legs got burned pretty badly.” Tadashi had spent months programing Baymax with medical data, he knew what third degree burns could do to nerves. His aunt wiped some tears away, before looking him straight in the eyes.

“Tadashi, honey, the doctors- they don’t think- they couldn’t fix them. They don’t think you’ll be able to use them anymore.” Shock filled him, and Tadashi couldn’t think. Surely this wasn’t happening right? Not ever being to walk again… He just couldn’t see it. Part of him accepted the possibility, but the rest simply couldn’t comprehend. He stared at Aunt Cass, trying to process her words. When she stood up, walked over, and gave him a kiss on the forehead, hugging him lightly, the words started to sink in, and a sense of loss fills him.

“I promise honey, it doesn’t change anything, okay? We’ll still love you all the same, it doesn’t matter.” She says resting her head on his, and Tadashi forces a hand to move and settle against one of the arms wrapped around him.

“Thanks Aunt Cass.” His voice is choked, and honestly he doesn’t know how he’s going to move forward, but somehow he gets the feeling it’ll be alright. She releases him, and Tadashi drops his hand back on to the mattress. She’s crying when she takes his face in her hands, but smiles all the same.

“My strong boy.” Her tone is prideful and loving, and she hugs him a final time, before the doctor comes in, tailed by a hesitant Hiro.

The doctor explains everything in a much more scientific manner, and Tadashi understood what had happened, and his heart sunk in his chest as the diagnosis was solidified. After checking his vitals and asking questions, he told Tadashi to get some rest before leaving, and the room sat in tense silence no one was willing to break. After a few moments of thought, Tadashi looked up at his family in the room, and smiled. They gave him confused looks in return and he laughed.

“I’m just happy to be alive.” He says finally, and Aunt Cass smiles widely at him, a laugh falling out of her mouth, and stood and walked over to him, hugging him once more, while Hiro stood by the bed, and Tadashi reached up to ruffle his younger brothers hair, although it was more of a light pat.

“My very strong boy.” It’s a whisper, a murmur into his hair, but Tadashi smiles all the same, before he gives a yawn. “Get some sleep.” She says, smiling at him. “We’ll be here in the morning.” He gives a small nod in response, and it isn’t long until he slips into a fitful slumber, and Aunt Cass runs her fingers through his hair once more before heading back to the couch. “Hiro, you should get some sleep too.”

“Yeah, in a minute.” He mumbles, going over the final design one more time. Everything was ready to go, he had all the parts he needed, all he had to do was get some information and go home and get to work, but… He glanced over at his brother. Hiro didn’t want to leave. He hadn’t left really, except to go home and pick up clothes and shower over the course of the week Tadashi had been in the hospital, and then with Wasabi to get the materials he needed. But part of him knew if he wanted to help he’d have to eventually, so he was firm in his decision. Tomorrow he’d get Aunt Cass to drop him off at the house later, and he’d get to work. Hiro snapped his notebook shut and walked over to the armchair with a yawn, curling up and falling asleep rapidly now that he knew his brother would be alright.


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N: Whaaaaaaaaaat, an update so early??? Yeah I know, but please don’t expect anything else until at least Sunday after this. I’m happy that this came out more around the 6k work mark, and I think it’s a pretty decent chapter, so I hope ya’ll enjoy, and after I get this posted I’ll get started on the next! Also, I keep forgetting to mention, but this is NOT Hidashi. I don’t mind if you ship it or anything like that, I think everyone should be entitled to love what they want, but I don’t ship it because I myself have an older sibling and it’s just weird for me. Although if you want to interpret your own way that’s fine, but it’s not intended to be a slash fic and it’s not the way I’m writing it, so I apologize if that’s what you were hoping for. If you have any questions feel free to ask, as of right now I’m responding to reviews at the bottom if you don’t have an account!
> 
> *IMPORTANT* There are MINOR TIME SKIPS in this chapter (a few days to a few weeks). I tried to at least mention the time past, but if you get confused AT ALL, PLEASE ask me and I will be more than happy to clarify. Also the rating has been upped to Teen for minor language

Hiro dropped his head on to the desk with a groan of frustration and a loud thud that echoed through the garage. No matter how much he thought about it, there simply wasn’t any other solution. He’d have to ask Tadashi, and with such an odd question there was bound to be a mandatory explanation. After all, normal people don’t just go up to someone and ask, “Hey, can I measure your legs?” Hiro would simply have to wait until Tadashi’s legs were healed enough to lose the gauze, and then he’d have to tell his brother about the project he’d undertaken.  _‘So much for false hope…’_ He thinks, and turns his gaze to the first edition of his neurocranial transmitter for the show case. He’d ditched it after creating a newer improved version just days before he had to show it, and hadn’t trashed the old one yet. He was in the process of dismantling it and installing new processor cores and signal readers, as well as trying to code it to read only a specific set of neurons, the extra precision making the device faster and easier to use. He was nowhere near starting the coding yet, still trying to update the software, and had hit a wall until it was finished or he could get those measurements.

With a sigh he pushes away from the desk, grabbing his jacket and standing, getting ready to head to the kitchen and get something to eat, or maybe sneak a donut from the café while Aunt Cass wasn’t looking. Lost in thought, he isn’t paying attention to where he’s going, and manages to nail himself in the hip with the corner of the desk. He lets out a yelp and a hiss of pain, glaring at the offending object as he leans over slightly, only to be distracted at the sound of something inflating, and he glances over to see Baymax getting ready to make his way over.

It takes a moment for the nursebot to navigate his way over to Hiro, but eventually the white marshmallow is standing in front of him.

“Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I was alerted to the need for medical attention when you said: ow. On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?” The chart of faces shows up on Baymax’s stomach, and Hiro can’t help a grin.

“Hey Baymax, I didn’t mean to activate you.” The bot stares at him for a few moments of silence. “So you know, you can get back in your luggage now.” The bot repeats his question, and Hiro sighs. “Uh, zero? Really Baymax, I’m fine there’s no need for-”

“I will scan you now.”

“Don’t, there’s no-”

“Scan complete.”

“Unbelievable.” Hiro says, putting his face in his hand with another sigh.

“You have a minor contusion to your: hip. I suggest rest so no further injury comes to the area.” Baymax states, one arm raised with his pointer finger towards the sky. Hiro is about to give a snarky comment in return, when he remembers Baymax recorded a patient’s scan, and an idea came to light. Technically, measurements could qualify as “medical data”…

“Baymax, do you still have your scan of Tadashi?” Hiro asks, excitement leaking into his tone.

“Of course. I am programed to record data of all of my patients.”

“Could you show me?” A picture of his brother pops up on Baymax’s stomach, and the bot starts listing off the information he’d collected.

“His blood type is-”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t tell me just show me.” He says, staring at the bots stomach. “Do you have measurements?” The bot displays his request, and Hiro is excited to find that bot even recorded simple data like gym measurements. He’d have to give his brother more props on Baymax’s coding, the bot didn’t over look detail. Hiro sat down at the desk, and started scribbling down the numbers on an empty sheet, before dropping the sheet next to his note book with his projects design.

“Baymax, you just made this a whole lot easier.” He says, marking slight changes on the design without looking up at the bot.

“I am glad to have been able to assist. I cannot deactivate until you say you are satisfied with your care.”

“Well then, I am satisfied with my care. Thanks Baymax.” He says absently and the bot returns to his station, shrinking down once more.

_‘Just you wait Tadashi, I’ll have you up on your feet again in no time.’_

* * *

Tadashi yawned as Aunt Cass spoke, much to his own dismay since he didn’t want her to think he wasn’t paying attention, but she smiled at him instead. He gave a sheepish grin back.

“Sorry Aunt Cass, the morphine they gave me during the bandage change really knocks me out.” She waves off his apology.

“Its fine honey, you just get some rest. I should head back and check Hiro anyway, make sure he isn’t destroying the house with whatever he’s working on down there.” Tadashi frowns a bit at the thought. He’d been a little disappointed when his younger brother decided not to visit, but was sure he had good reason for it so he didn’t mind. However, if he was working in the garage… A few bot fights gone wrong from the past come to mind, and he hopes his little brother isn’t slipping into bad habits again.

“Yeah.” Tadashi says in response. “Make sure he’s at home.” Aunt Cass can’t help but smile at the concern.

“He’s been very good, Tadashi.” She says, chastising him. “I don’t think he’s been to a bot fight since the last incident.” Tadashi dips his head a bit, slightly guilty for assuming his brother would be up to no good, but he couldn’t help the worry after seeing his little brother come home banged up more times than once.

“I know, I know, it’s just...” Tadashi trails off. Aunt Cass didn’t know about the worst of the fights, and both Tadashi and Hiro wanted to keep it that way. She smiles at him again nonetheless, ruffling his short hair a bit as she stood.

“Get some sleep Tadashi. I’ll be by tomorrow with your brother.” He smiles back at her, before shifting slightly and letting the painkillers lead him to a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Hiro grins wildly at the digital specs he’d created. He was pretty sure they were _perfect_ , and he hadn’t been this sure of a project since Megabot (he was pretty sure about the microbots too, but there were still quite a few pieces he would have liked to improve on had he had the time). The designs for the project itself were finished and completely digitalized.

However, the same could not be said for the first generation transmitter he was trying to upgrade. The schematics were murky at best, the software kept giving him errors, he had yet to install the new tech, and don’t even get him _started_ on the coding he was nowhere _near_ starting and barely had a concept of how to achieve it.

Hiro sighs in defeat, weariness settling deep in his bones, and ran his fingers through his hair, only to get a few centimeters before running into a mess of matted hair. He stops in confusion, his hair wasn’t usually _this_ messy. Wait, how long had he been in the garage again? He tries to wrack his brain for a date or a time, and comes up with a sketchy time where he went up into the kitchen for water before rushing back to the garage in a haste to continue. He also knew he’d fallen asleep in the red armchair more than once and at the desk a few times as well. Then there was those times when Aunt Cass brought him food and was mildly upset with him over something, he wasn’t paying attention to her words… Seriously, how long _was_ he down there? He pulls up the date and time on the computer, and promptly stares at the screen in shock.

“A week?!” He yells, astonishment evident in his tone and then horror because _shit_ , _he hadn’t been to the hospital since he started!_ He glances at the clock again in a rush, and 2:30pm blinked back at him. Aunt Cass would probably close the café early at three and then head over. He jumps out of the desk chair, banishing the tiredness from his head and rushing to go shower and change while yelling,

“Aunt Cass, why didn’t you tell me how long I was down there?!” His voice is higher than he would have liked, but he isn’t paying attention at the moment.

“I did Hiro, but you weren’t listening!” She calls back from the café, and guilt stabs him in the heart. He’d been so caught up in trying to develop something to _help_ Tadashi that he’d completely pushed aside _visiting_ Tadashi. His throat tightens, and Hiro hopes his older brother isn’t too upset with him. After a quick shower and rather brutal attempt at getting the knots out of his hair, he pulls on some clean clothes and dons an old grey hoodie, his favorite blue jacket having been shoved under his bed since whenever he looked at it he was brought back to _that_ night, and rushes downstairs with a toothbrush in his mouth still as his aunt closes up shop. She sends him back upstairs to finish brushing his teeth, and while he’s up there he grabs Tadashi’s Sanfransokyo Ninjas hat.

It had been blown off before Tadashi had run into the building, and Hiro had kept it until they got to the hospital and weren’t sure for a while if he’d pull through or not. Aunt Cass had taken him home to change out of smoke clad clothes, and he’d left the hat on Tadashi’s bed, a too painful of a reminder of his brother’s unstable condition. Hiro thought he’d might want it back because, although his hair had faired _surprisingly_ well for someone who ran into a burning building, it was still singed, and could use some work.

He runs back downstairs, shoes thumping against the wood loudly, almost barreling into Aunt Cass. She smiles at his rush.

“Ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

* * *

Tadashi laughed as Fred finished his recount of the bike race they’d convinced Gogo to join, in which she completely destroyed the competition. The person in question was leaning by the doorframe nonchalant, chewing gum, putting in her own comment at the end about how much their bikes sucked. As that particular conversation ended, Honey Lemon smiled at Tadashi. The patient care manager had allowed the four of them in the room at once, although Tadashi had no clue how they’d managed to convince him.

“How’s Hiro, Tadashi?” Honey Lemon asks, and his smile falters slightly, before it returns, albeit forced. The group frowns, almost in sync, even Gogo, although hers is more of a slight turn of lips.

“I don’t really know.” He says with a laugh, moving to bring his hand up to the back of his neck before wincing and letting it fall again. “He hasn’t really been in. Aunt Cass says he’s working really hard on something down in the garage.” His voice is a mixture of pride and worry, tinted with slight sadness. The group looks at each other once more, and Tadashi laughs again. “I just hope he doesn’t over work himself without me there to keep an eye on him.” The group nods in agreement, offering small smiles, except for Gogo who looks the other way. _‘That kid…’_ She thinks, eyes narrowed. _‘He’s up to something…’_

The conversation changes once more, before a nurse comes in and declares it time to change his bandages once more, and the group leaves, promising to return soon.

It’s a semi-painful hour and half, he couldn’t really feel the ones on his legs after all but changing the ones on his back _hurt_ , and by the time she’s done and has updated him on his condition, there’s a higher dosage of morphine in his blood and he’s exhausted. About a three hour long nap later he’s awake and bored, and considering watching more T.V., even though he’s had enough for the rest of the year at this point, when Aunt Cass arrives.

Hiro pauses at the door after Aunt Cass goes in. He doesn’t know how his brother will react, after all Hiro had just up and disappeared for a _week_ while his _brother_ was in the _hospital,_ and he felt terrible. Would Tadashi be mad? Sad? Disappointed? He swallows at the thought, gripping the Ninjas hat in his hands a little tighter. He can hear his aunt and Tadashi talking.

“Hey Aunt Cass.” Wow his brother sounds so much _better_ , and his heart fills with joy at the thought.

“I brought someone with me today!” Aunt Cass says gleefully, and Hiro inhales deeply, before releasing the breath and walking in.

“H-Hey, Tada-nii…” Hiro says nervously, and is surprised when his older brother’s face lights up, and he smiles brightly.

“Hey, Otouto.” He says, and the childhood old name brings a smile to Hiro’s face. He walks over to the bedside as Aunt Cass says something about talking to his doctor and coffee.

“I’m so sorry, Tada-nii, I was working on something that you’re really gonna love and I just lost track of-” He’s cut off by a laugh from his older brother. Tadashi is just glad to see his brother in one piece, although the younger boy looks overtired still, and that he’s finally visiting.

“It’s alright, Hiro. But I want to hear about this project that is taking up all of your time.” Hiro freezes at that, dropping Tadashi’s gaze, as he tries to come up with a reasonable excuse. He hesitates to long from the looks of it, and his brother’s face turns serious.

“Hiro, you aren’t bot fighting again are you?” His voice is low, and Hiro snaps his gaze up, almost hurt from the assumption.

“What? No! I’m not, I swear, I’m not Tadashi.” He says, looking his brother in the eye as he speaks. “But I…” He trails off, dipping his gaze once more. He couldn’t tell his brother yet, he hadn’t even built it yet, let alone tested it! “I…” He says again, as though repeating the word would suddenly give him an answer.

“You can’t tell me?” His brother finishes for him, and Hiro looks up once more before nodding. Tadashi was a bit hurt, Hiro rarely kept secrets from him, unless it involved bot fighting, and his little brother seemed really invested in this project he’d taken up. Normally, Tadashi wouldn’t have been able to get him to _stop_ talking about whatever he was building. It must have shown on his face, because Hiro hastily adds,

“Yet! I can’t tell you yet. Not until it’s done. But I promise Tada-nii, you’re gonna love it.” Tadashi smiles in response.

“Alright, just promise me you’ll be careful with whatever it is you’re doing.” Hiro smiles cheerfully and nods. A thought comes to mind.

“Oh, and Tada-nii?” Hiro gives a wicked smile, and Tadashi eyes him. He knew that devilish smirk from hundreds of past prank wars.

“Hiro…” Tadashi says warningly, and he can almost hear the snicker that’s dancing in his younger brother’s eyes.

“Just wanted to say you did a really thorough job with Baymax’s coding.”

Aunt Cass smiles as she hears yelling and mischievous laughter coming from her oldest adopted son’s room.

* * *

Aunt Cass had fallen asleep on the couch in Tadashi’s room after his last bandage change, and it was then decided that the two of them would be staying the night.

“Hey Tada-nii?” Hiro says as he drapes a blanket over his aunt’s shoulders per his older brother’s request, glancing at Tadashi who now had the Ninjas hat atop his head. Tadashi smiled lightly at the old name. He’d really missed the address, and he was starting to get the feeling that although Hiro was the one who’d asked him to stop, his little brother had missed them too.

“Yeah, Otouto?” Hiro pauses before speaking once more.

“You… you aren’t mad right? That I didn’t visit sooner?” Tadashi looks at his younger brother in surprise.

“What? No, of course not! I mean, I’d have loved it if you had, but I know how you, how the both of us really, can get when we’re working on something.” Hiro smiles at his older brother.

“Thanks Tada-nii. Thanks for understanding.” Tadashi smiles back.

“Anytime, Otouto.”

* * *

“Yes!” Hiro holds up the transmitter in delight. “I’m a genius.” He boasts to empty space. He’d finally gotten the thing to update properly, and he could start installing the new processors and receptors now.

“Why’s that, I wonder?” Hiro jumps with a yelp at the voice, and turns around rapidly to face none other than Gogo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred in his garage. Gogo stares at him with a suspicious glare, Honey Lemon gives a strained smile of hello, Wasabi just looks generally uncomfortable, and Fred is too busy looking around to have noticed the confrontation. He lets out a breath at the sight of Tadashi’s friends, more recently his own, and says,

“Jeez, you guys gave me a heart attack!”

“What’s that?” Gogo questions gesturing to his hands, and Hiro sets it down behind him in a rush.

“U-uh-”

“What’s _that?”_ Gogo questions, staring at the screen behind him. _‘Crap, the schematics!’_ He thinks, and swipes the screen clean in a rush.

“Not even a hello.” He snarks nervously, covering the desk in a rush. One look at the Gogo says she’s already seen too much, and he sighs in defeat.

“I didn’t want to tell anyone until it was finished.” He says, tone subdued.

“Until _what_ was finished?” Hiro turns at Gogo’s biting tone and pulls up the schematics. After staring at them for a moment, both Honey Lemon’s and Wasabi’s jaws drop, and Gogo’s eyes widen marginally as she pops her gum, while Fred exclaims,

“Whoa dude, that’s totally sick.” Hiro perks up at the words and stands proud.

“I know right?” His tone is excited, and Honey Lemon speaks.

“Hiro this…” He nods at her.

“It’s for Tadashi. I came up with it when we first found out.”

“And the lab…?” Hiro hangs his head at Wasabi’s input.

“I needed to borrow some tech…” He looks up again. “But I swear, I was gonna give it back when I was done. At least, I was gonna return the tools anyway…”

“Why didn’t you just tell us Hiro?” Honey Lemon asks. “We would’ve let you in, and we could help manufacture it!”

“I don’t want Tadashi to find out yet. Not until I’m positive it works. I don’t want him to be let down if it doesn’t…” He trails off, and arms are thrown around him as Honey Lemon coos,

“Aren’t you just the sweetest little brother!” Hiro laughs nervously again as she releases him.

“We could help.” Gogo says, and when Hiro looks over at her he thought he saw hint of guilt as she offered. Everyone nodded in agreement, and Hiro smiled at them.

“Thanks guys, but I’ve got it figured out for now. If I need anything I’ll ask though.” They smile and nod in return, and each of them bid him farewell until Gogo is the last one out the door. She pauses on the threshold.

“…Sorry.” She mutters, and Hiro gives her a curious look.

“For what?”

“…Thinking you were up to something.” She says in response, before she steps over and is gone. Hiro stands there processing for a moment, before shrugging and getting back to work.

* * *

Tadashi felt terrible for even thinking it. He scolds himself for the thought almost the instant it pricks at his mind, but no matter how hard he tries, he can’t banish it completely.

He should be grateful he’s even alive, should be glad he can still hug his aunt and ruffle his little brother’s hair, and he is, he really _is_. He’s so happy that Hiro didn’t have to lose another family member, that Aunt Cass wouldn’t have to raise his troublemaker of a sibling alone, that he would still be able to go to the lab and work with his friends on their own respective projects, that he and Hiro would get to go to SFIT together and that Tadashi would get to watch his little brother change the _world._ He’s _ecstatic_ that he’s still here to smile and to laugh.

And yet, he still wants _more_. The greedy thought is still there prying at the corners of his mind, growling like a starving animal that was never satisfied.

_I wish I could still walk._

And he feels absolutely abhorrent for it.

* * *

Hiro gives a large yawn after he finishes attaching the last processor and sets the now newest generation of his neurocranial transmitter down with a tired smile. He still had to edit the coding, which would probably take the longest, but was happy with his work so far none the less. He glances at the clock on his computer, and squints at it until the numbers become clear, before his squint turns into a glare. 11:04am glares right back, and he gives a heavy sigh at the realization that’d he’d stayed up all night, and Aunt Cass had told him the day before she was closing at twelve to head over to the hospital. _‘Oh well,’_ He thinks, standing and stretching before heading through the Café and up the stairs to his room.

_‘Maybe I should start printing everything up…’_ He thinks idly after his shower as he pulls on a fresh shirt with another yawn that makes his eyes water. He rubs them as he thinks. _‘I don’t know when they plan on releasing him, but getting all the parts printed down to the final detail could take a while… Not to mention all the augmenting I’m gonna have to do when it’s done.’_ Hiro scrunches his nose. _‘And then there’s still the coding on the headband... let alone syncing it up with the rest…’_ Another yawn, and he isn’t paying attention to where he’s walking.

A thud echoes through the house, followed by a louder thump and belated “Well, that hurt,” and Aunt Cass winces as she marks down the last of today’s sale.

“Hiro, sweetheart, are you alright?” The person in question comes down the stairs a few moments later, rubbing his now red forehead as Aunt Cass stands and walks over to him, taking his hand from his face to examine it for herself. “What happen?” She misses his first response, it was too much of a mumble to make out. “What was that, I didn’t catch it.” Hiro’s cheeks redden a bit as he repeats himself.

“I ran into a wall.” It’s silent for a moment, before a giggle slips out of Aunt Cass, and then she’s laughing raucously, and Hiro gives her a tired glare.

“Yeah, yeah, hilarious, I know. Can we go?”

* * *

It had been three weeks, and Tadashi was _definitely_ starting to feel the restlessness of being bedridden for so long. And when the restlessness came along, so did the thoughts. He shifted again, pleased to realize that the pain he’d have normally felt a week and a half ago was much more minuscule, only to have the joy he felt from that drop away when his mind turned around and reminded him that no feeling had come back to his legs.

Tadashi supposed he’d been hoping that the doctors were mistaken, and that as they started to lower his dosage of morphine, something would come back. That hope faded a little more each day as his situation remained the same, and the grave reality set in even further.

Normally, when the self-pity and avaricious thoughts came around, he could dispel them with ease, but on particularly rough days where he felt like he could not stand to watch another minute of TV, and he was absolutely satiated with laying around, they would cling to his mind and make him irritable and upset. Today was one of those days, and he could feel the frustration thrumming under his skin as he tried his hardest to stick with the positives and calm his unruly ideation.

His thoughts are interrupted when Aunt Cass knocks on the open door to his room, and when he look up she smiles at him, and he gives a small one back. She’s tailed by a rather energy-less Hiro, and Tadashi frowns at the state of his younger brother, who yawns and scrubs his eyes once more before stepping over the threshold of his room. He turns his gaze to Aunt Cass with an eyebrow raised, and she gives a sigh in defeat and a shrug in response.

“Just fall out of bed, Hiro?” Tadashi jokes, and Hiro rolls his eyes good-naturedly in response.

“Yeah, yeah, make fun of the kid with the possible concussion.” He jokes in return, only to have Tadashi’s eyes alight in panic.

“What do you mean? What happened?” He asks quickly, and Hiro raises his hands in a placating gesture.

“Whoa relax. Joke, Tadashi.” The younger boy points at his forehead, to which Aunt Cass giggles by Tadashi, and he glances up at her for a moment before returning his gaze to his brother. “I ran into a wall this morning. Literally, not metaphorically.” Aunt Cass breaks into laughter again, and Tadashi stares at Hiro for a moment before he too breaks into snickers, and Hiro rolls his eyes at the two “adults” in the room.

“Wha- how did you manage that?” Tadashi asks finally, and Hiro gives him a grin that's, much to Tadashi's dismay and increasing worry, rather exhausted.

“Was lost in thought, not paying attention to where I was walking.” He replies nonchalant, and yawns before dropping in a chair by the bed. Tadashi raises an eyebrow once more.

“How late did you stay up last night?” He questions, and Hiro grimaces.

“Don't remind me.” He whines, leaning back in the chair with a groan while suppressing yet another yawn.

“You didn't even go to bed, did you?”

“I was on a role Bro, I couldn't just stop to sleep.” Tadashi sighs in response, and Hiro grins at him. “It was totally worth it. You’ll see.” Tadashi returns the grin.

“Alright, just get some sleep tonight Hiro.” His little brother nods eagerly in response.

“Yeah, sure.”

* * *

“And earlier today, Mrs. Matsuda came in. She left you something, I think it's a pasta dish or something. I'll have to ask if I can bring it in for you.” Aunt Cass pauses. “Actually, maybe it's better if I don't. We want to get you out of here sooner rather than later.” Tadashi chuckles at the comment, glancing over at Hiro, only to find the fourteen year old absolutely passed out on the couch. He laughs a bit softer, and Aunt Cass smiles as she glances over.

“I’d better take him home.” His aunt says with an endearing smile as she glances over at Tadashi, and he nods in response.

“Don’t let him in the garage.” Tadashi says sternly, and Aunt Cass laughs in response.

“Wasn’t planning on it. Whatever he’s working on down there, he’s really dedicated. I don’t think he’s ever been this focused before, the showcase included.” Tadashi smiles at the comment.

“Yeah, I can tell.” He looks up at Aunt Cass. “Don’t let him work too hard, okay?” Aunt Cass smiles one more.

“Of course.”

* * *

Hiro glances over at the printer from where he’s sitting at the desk working on the coding for the transmitter and the second set of signal receptors. He’d been _very_ specific in the digital designs, and it showed by how _long_ the pieces were taking to print. He would still have to go back and refine it all, and add upgrades too before putting it together, as well as spray the carbonfiber in the silver alloy (simply because it looked cooler), _and_ add the water proof coating. Still, it gave him time to work on coding so it wasn’t that upsetting. Tadashi had been in the hospital for about a month and a half now, and Hiro was starting to notice his brother was getting more impatient by the day to _get out of there,_ and there’d been talk about his release, but Hiro was only just _barely_ finishing up with the printing, which had ended up taking a lot longer than he’d estimated. Maybe he should upgrade the 3D printer at some point too… He shakes his head. He was getting off topic again.

Turning back to the computer, he began imputing more code, trying to narrow down the signals as far as possible to decrease confusion to an absolute minimum and increase speed. He’d been unable to narrow down the transmitter to a specific region of the brain yet, and it still wasn’t producing the real time data he wanted, the lag still being too long between processing and signal sending. He’d also thought about putting on a genetic lock so no one would be able to take advantage of the tech other than his brother, but he would put that on last, after testing. A ding echoed through the garage, and he took his fingers off the keyboard and pushed away from the desk, rolling over to the printer.

_‘That’s the last of it, now I need to coat the individual parts in the alloy and let it dry.’_ The alloy wasn’t going to be easy since it was going melted metal rather than paint (which would scratch way too easily, whereas the alloy he’d decided to go with was strong and scratch resistant), but it was either that or print the whole thing up in silver alloy, which would have been _a lot_ heavier. Hiro would have to make a trip to the lab in the next day or so, and until he could get everything transported, he left it covered and safe in the back corner of the garage. Spinning back around to the other desk, he leaned back, stretched, and cracked his fingers. It was going to be another long night, hopefully one of the last.

* * *

He watched with welding goggles on and thick gloves as he dipped the final piece into the glowing liquid metal, carefully balancing the melting point (and softening point, for that matter) of his particular carbon fiber and the freezing point of the alloy. He cleaned up the design the previous night before Wasabi came and picked up everything in his car, and he’s still have to do it one more time after the pieces were dipped, but he was so much closer now to actually building it and implanting the receptors before finalizing it with the water proofing. Pulling the piece out once more he grins and leaves the pieces to cool while he pulls off the gloves and goggles and works on some more coding via the computers in the lab.

A few more lines of typing before his jumps out of his seat, throwing his arms gleefully with a loud “Yes!”, causing his friends, who were milling about or working on their own projects, to jump.

The transmitter was done! All he had to do now was update the receptors one more time, and then a day or two of building before he could finally test it! His friends look at each other in amusement, they’d all had their own respective moments themselves, before returning to work.

By the time the receptors are updated, the alloy had dried and cooled, and he got to work, welding, screwing, and gearing up all of the pieces in their respective places. He wanted to get it finished as soon as possible, but rushing through the final steps could result in drastic errors, and after more than a month of hard work Hiro was _not_ going to let that happen.

It’s late when Honey Lemon taps him on the shoulder and tells him it’s time to go, and he almost considers pulling another all-nighter when the brunt of the last few weeks of virtually no sleep comes back with a dreadful vengeance, and he agrees, setting down his tools and covering the project before heading out. He doesn’t remember getting out of Wasabi’s car that night, only waking up in the comfort of his own bed after a pleasantly dreamless sleep in the late afternoon with a note from his aunt saying she’d gone to visit his brother.

* * *

It was getting harder, Tadashi realized, to keep thinking everything was going to be alright. His almost unfailing optimism and consistent support from his family and friends had gotten him pretty far, but physical therapy was _excruciating,_ and the inability to move on his own anymore was driving him up the walls. And with Hiro… well Tadashi just didn’t know what to think anymore. After that first accidental week of not visiting, Hiro had been pretty consistent with visiting daily for a little while, and then it had dropped to every other day, then every two days, and now recently, it’d been almost a week once more. Part of him knew and had complete and utter faith in his little brother that he was working _hard_ at whatever it was he was doing, and it always would, but another, smaller part, that had developed more recently, was starting to fear that maybe… maybe his little brother didn’t _want_ visit him.

When the niggling of doubt had first pushed its way into his mind, he’d dumped it at once. He’d thought Hiro was genuinely okay and that he’d accepted the fact (that Tadashi himself might have not even accepted until recently) that his brother might not ever be able to stand anymore. But now… Tadashi wasn’t as concrete in his assumption. Maybe Hiro _was_ upset with the fact that Tadashi had been crippled, maybe… maybe he didn’t _want_ an older brother who wouldn’t be able to do things on his own. Maybe he thought Tadashi had just become a _burden_.

Tadashi felt horrid for even thinking it, he held Hiro much higher than that, so much higher, but lately it was getting arduous to push the self-depreciating thoughts away as he saw less and less of his little brother.

Tadashi sighed in self-contempt. He shakes his head wearily. He couldn’t believe it, he was actually brooding, and the thought drew a weak chuckle out of him.

* * *

“It’s done!” He yells with a cheerful laugh, and everyone in the group hurries over to examine the prideful fourteen year-old’s work.

The exoskeleton is slim and sleek in build, not bulky at all, the dimensions of which had been adjusted to the measurements for his brother that Baymax had given to him. It’s finished in a brilliant silver coat that’s shiny and bright, with two light red glowing orbs on the upper thigh and upper calf at the sensor implant sight on both legs, the light indicating the sensors were working at full capacity. The slightly domed shape also allowed for the refraction of light into the small, _powerful_ solar panels located inside, making it impossible for the power to fail since they collected both natural and artificial light, and could store more than a month’s worth of power. The joints were minimal, designed to replicate a smooth natural walk and to adjust to the stride of person using it, and not to be robotic at all for comfort and mobility. Next to it sat the fully upgraded neurocranial transmitter, designed to transmit real time action to legs without any lag time whatsoever, and if it did exist, it was on a scale so small it was similar to the short amount of time between action and reaction with something like a reflex, that had been full synced with the receptors on the legs, then genetic lock left off until it was ready for his brother. All that was left now was testing.

Hiro had already put some thought into who he would ask to see if it worked, and turned to one member of the group in particular, grinning wildly.

“Fred, ready to give it a go?” Fred’s eyes light up, and he grins madly in return.

“Oh, _hell_ yeah.”

 


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Here's chapter 4, technically ahead of schedule whaaaa? It's a bit shorter than the last, but I felt like it was good place to stop, and after this we get to start getting into all the action and stuff! Also, this is sort of going to follow the canon story. And by that I mean the plot is virtually the same but the build will be different depending on the scene. I know a few are going to be very similar, but I don't want to just rewrite the movie, y'know? For a final note, as I was rereading this, I feel like the emotion may be lacking in some parts, and I thoroughly apologize, but it's been a real rough day since a kid at my school committed suicide, and I've been helping people deal with the aftermath and all that, so it's difficult for me to write happy right now, and I really wanted to get this posted tonight so I could get the next one done by Sunday for ya'll (please don't hold me too that XD). Anyway Enjoy, any questions please ask me! Also if you haven't yet please check out Runescratch on tumblr, their art is my inspiration, and two scenes in this chapter she had drawn out, one comic and one a single picture!

"Alright." Hiro says as he finishes hooking up the legs to Fred before slipping on the headband. The legs didn't hook up quite right due to the fact Fred's measurements were different from Tadashi's, but it was really only the height that mattered for the test, and Fred was the closest to Tadashi. Hiro steps back from the counter where Fred sits patiently.

"This is gonna be kind of weird for you since you can still use your legs. I want you to relax completely."

"Done." Fred says, slouching on the counter. When wasn't he relaxed?

"Okay. Now I want you to  _think_  about your legs moving, picture it, but remain completely relaxed and  _don't actually move._ " Fred does just that, and to his upmost surprise, the exoskeleton moves as he pictures it, swinging his legs back and forth. Fred watches in fascination as he states, a bit of awe in his tone,

"I'm totally not doing that." Hiro smiles cheekily.

"Alright, final test." There wasn't a lot he could or needed to check really, just that it worked. Hiro couldn't test if the legs worked without having to picture it because for someone who still had the ability to walk, it'd be too difficult to tell if the exoskeleton was walking or their legs were. "Stand up." Hiro orders, and Fred complies, slipping off the elevated surface and landing with a light thud on the floor.

"Now, just like before, relax completely, even your legs, like you were just going to let yourself fall." Everyone watched as Fred's weight shifted downward slightly, but he didn't fall as the legs held him up. Fred's eyes widen again.

"Hey, could you make me some of these?" He says jokingly and Hiro rolls his eyes.

"Think about walking. Like think about walking over to your chair, and coming back." Everyone holds their breath. The exoskeleton holds Fred's weight, who's quite obviously not holding his own, and walks in fluid,  _human_ steps over to the chair across the lab, and then starts back. Part way through Fred grins and breaks into a jog, before stopping at the group, who releases their breath in a cheer, while Gogo simply smiles.

"Yeeaah!" Hiro cries in delight, and Fred gives him a slap on the back, Gogo and Wasabi throws him a high five, and Honey Lemon gives him a tight hug. "It works!" He says, exuberant and laughing joyfully, almost in tears. He lets Fred prance around in it for a little while, jumping and kicking about to "test it some more" although he was really just having a blast, before unhooking him and shutting it down. He had one more upgrade to do before it was finished, and Hiro would need the help of a certain marshmallow like nursebot to do it.

"When are you going to tell Tadashi?" Wasabi asks, and Hiro replies immediately, a topic he'd already thought about,

"When they release him, which is supposed to be soon. He's been healing up really well and they were talking about releasing him in maybe week or two around the two month mark." Wasabi smiles at that, and Honey Lemon says,

"Good job Hiro!" He smiles at the praise, before it falters a bit, and nervousness flicks across his face.

"Yeah, I hope Tada-nii likes it." The group shares a collective smile at the nickname Tadashi had told them more than once he'd missed, and before Honey Lemon could reassure him, Fred spoke up.

"Don't worry little dude, he's gonna love it." There's a unanimous "yeah" that goes through the group, and Hiro smiles brightly once more.

"Yeah. I think he will."

* * *

Tadashi wrung his hands impatiently while he waited for his doctor to return. After a series of  _extensive_  questioning, his attending had left to go over a few things, and Tadashi was hoping the report would go well because he was appetent to leave. Based on the rate of his healing, he gave himself approximately one more week in the hospital before they released him, although he was secretly hoping it would be sooner since all of his second degree burns had healed weeks ago, and the threat of infection for the remaining third degree burns was nonexistent, the bandages of which had been removed a couple of days ago.

Aunt Cass, who was sitting in the room with him, gave him a small, reassuring smile when he glanced over at her, and he returned it softly.

His physician returned, interrupting his musings and Tadashi and his aunt looked up eagerly. Dr. Devii smiled at both of them in return, pulling a pen out of the clipboard he was holding.

"Alright Mr. Hamada, it looks like you're ready to be released." Tadashi cheers internally as the man scribbles something on a paper, and tears it off the pad. He hands it to Tadashi, who recognizes the prescription as a painkiller right as the doctor speaks again. "That's your prescription for a minor painkiller, and you'll need to talk to your physical therapist about scheduling your next and future appointments. We've already gone over the list of symptoms that if you experience any of, you should return, correct?" Tadashi nods avidly in response, and Dr. Devii smiles once more. "Alright then, you're all set! A nurse will be by to check you out and provide you with a wheelchair." Tadashi almost winces a little at that, and his smile falls marginally at the small nonchalant reminder of his newfound disability, and the doctor exits the room. Aunt Cass stands and walks over to him with a bright smile.

"Well, ready to get out of here and eat some real food?" He laughs at the comment.

"Yeah I am." He replies joyfully, grinning wildly, and his aunt laughs in response.

"Let me call your brother, I think he's working at the lab right now. He'll be so excited to have you back at home." Aunt Cass turns around to dig through her purse for her phone, and Tadashi lets the smile slip.

His little brother would be happy he was being released, right?

* * *

"What?! I thought it wasn't supposed to be for another week!" The group glances at each other as they listen to Hiro talk into his phone. The boy is grinning excitedly. "Yeah. Yeah. Sur- oh wait no, that won't work." He's frowning now, eyebrows scrunched together as he thinks. "Why don't we meet at the restaurant? I need to head home first. I'm with everyone. Yeah Wasabi can drive me, I'll need his car to drop something off there first anyway. Nothing important." He pauses. "Should I invite them or is it just a family thing? Well ask him." Hiro's tone edges on exasperated. "It's cool if they go? Awesome. Alright. Yeah. We'll meet you there. Bye." He pauses, and the group listens as his voice gets smaller and the younger boy grumbles, "Yeah, love you too." He ends the phone call, and beams at the rest of the group.

"Tadashi's been released!" The groups' eyes widen. "We're going out for a celebratory dinner so my brother can get some real food for the first time in almost two months, and you're all invited to come." A chorus of "sure" echoes through the room, albeit stated differently, and Hiro grins again. "Alright, we're supposed to meet them at the restaurant, but I need to drop the exoskeleton at home first. There's one more thing I have to do before I show it to Tadashi." The group nods, and Fred volunteers to walk it out to the car, and since it was the easiest means of transport Hiro agreed and hooked Fred up quickly with deft fingers. The ride back was short and filled with casual conversation, and Fred and Hiro are in and out of the house quickly. The drive to the restaurant is virtually the same, and they arrive quickly.

Hiro is the first one out of the car, gesturing for the others to move faster, and when he gets inside, the shorter boy stands on his toes to search the crowd, before waving at Aunt Cass and rushing over.

The sight of his brother in a wheelchair hit harder than he was expecting, and Hiro pauses mid-step, swallowing. He snaps out of it with a small shake of his head and a firm reminder to himself of the working exoskeleton in the garage, and barrels into his older brother, the others following a few steps behind, chuckling. Hiro leans over the arm of the chair, squeezing his brother in a tight hug.

"Glad to have you back, Tada-nii." He says quietly, and Tadashi gives a small smile as he returns the embrace.

"Glad to be back, Otouto." He replies just as quiet, relief unfurling in his heart, tinged with guilt. Hiro  _was_  happy to have him back, and Tadashi felt ridiculous for even doubting it now. He smiles again as Hiro pulls away, and ruffles his younger brothers hair, laughing in delight when Hiro ducked away, fixing his older brother with a glare without malice as he tried to pat down his unruly locks.

Each of his friends offer their congratulations, and they all take a seat at the table, and spend the next hour and a half laughing and eating, and  _God_  it must have been a while since he'd eaten something decent because the food was  _fantastic._  Or maybe it was just the fact that he was eating with his friends and family in a place that didn't have white walls, but either way it was the best meal he'd had in a while.

* * *

They got home fairly early, but all parties were pretty exhausted, so it Aunt Cass and Hiro helped Tadashi up the first set of stairs, and for ease of access had set him up in the guest room there in their house above the café. Aunt Cass mentioned something about having an appointment to make it wheelchair accessible, but until then Tadashi would either have to stay at home or get them to help. He'd grimaced at the thought of basically being confined to house arrest after just getting released from the hospital, but did not complain.

Almost as soon as they arrived home, Hiro ran down to the garage.

"Ow?" He says, unsure, and Baymax activates and inflates. He smiles at the nursebot's introduction, before cutting to the chase.

"I need you to show me Tadashi's scan again." The data shows on Baymax's stomach. "Alright, can you copy that on to a computer doc?" The bot simply walks over to the computer and touches it with his finger, and an open document fills with data. Hiro smiles gleefully, before glancing around and saying, in a rapid, quiet tone, "Alright, awesome Baymax. Don't tell Tadashi about this okay? I am satisfied with my care." Baymax waddles back to his station and shrinks down again, and Hiro grabs the case and hauls it upstairs.

Tadashi was sitting on the couch, Aunt Cass fretting over him, when Hiro finally made up out of breath.

"Jeez," He says in between breaths. "Baymax is- heavier- than he looks." Tadashi raises an eyebrow, eyeing his brother suspiciously, and Hiro grins at him. "Relax, I haven't touched your precious coding." His brother noticeably relaxes, and Hiro turns to the case on the floor.

"Ow." He states, and the white circle glows before it opens and Baymax appears once more. Aunt Cass claps her hands together and coos,

"Oh my god he's adorable. Like a giant marshmallow." Hiro and Tadashi both laugh at the comment, Hiro having said the same thing himself earlier.

"Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I was alerted to a sound of: distress. What seems to be the problem?" Hiro smiles.

"Nothing buddy, we're just gonna need your help for a while. Time to put that programming to the test." Tadashi rolls his eyes, and opens his mouth to say he was fine, but a sharp look from Hiro has him shutting it again.

It takes about a half hour to convince Aunt Cass that the boys would be fine, and that Baymax and Hiro could help Tadashi if he needed it so she could go to sleep. Eventually Hiro ends up on the couch watching lousy TV while Tadashi sat in his wheelchair muttering his annoyance, and Hiro passes him a book after the first few complaints.

Tadashi glanced over at his younger brother, a question on his tongue that's forgotten when he sees him.

Hiro is curled up in a ball in the corner of the couch, dead to the world and snoring slightly, and the sight brings a soft smile to Tadashi's face. He himself was pretty worn out, but wasn't quite ready to turn in yet. Lying in bed made him more restless, and if he was being completely honest, he hadn't been sleeping well since they took him off the morphine, which would give him dreamless sleep. Not that he wanted to be back on it, the stuff blurred his mind which was a feeling he absolutely hated, but it was much more difficult to sleep without it because of the nightmares.

Tadashi didn't remember much of what happened, but he knew what he felt. The fire, the  _heat,_ pain, choking on thick, hot air, so thick he couldn't  _breathe_ , it felt like he was is  _suffocating_  and every inhale  _burned,_ his eyes watering from the smoke, regret for his idiotic decision to run in because  _what could he do,_  and the complete and utter  _terror_. Terrified he wouldn't be able to rescue Callaghan, terrified he wouldn't make it out alive, terrified he'd never see his friends or his aunt again, and  _terrified_   _of what it would do to Hiro._  To his baby brother who looked to Tadashi whenever he needed support.

Those feelings were what came back to him in dreams, that shocked him awake in the middle of the night.

He didn't get them every night, usually only after particularly rough days, but combined with the almost constant sense of inquietude it made it difficult to fall asleep in the dark hours.

Tadashi was quick to find out he wasn't the only one being terrorized.

It was a small sound, barely noticeable, but in the quiet of the room with the TV turned down to a low murmur, it seemed to bounce off the walls and echo in his ears. Tadashi turns his head, confused. It was like a combination of a sniffle and a muffled low whine, and he didn't know where it was coming from at first. It doesn't take him long to realize the sound emanated from his younger brother's tense form on the couch after a second sound, more akin to a choked sob this time.

Tadashi maneuvers over to his brother quickly, leaning over and placing a hand on his shoulder, shaking him lightly.

"Hiro." He says quietly, wary of waking their aunt in the other room. It's then when he notices Hiro's cheeks glistened in the low light, streaked with tears, as the boy curled further into himself. Tadashi clicks a few pieces together in his mind, and berates himself for not noticing his brother's sleeping problems sooner. He shakes Hiro a bit more anxiously, voice a bit louder. "Hiro!" His brother shoots up with a gasp, a ball of flailing limbs, and Tadashi reaches out with both arms, placing grounding hands on his shoulders. "Whoa, easy. It's alright, you're okay." Nostalgia hits him hard, the familiar childhood line bringing back memories of when Hiro had night terrors as a child after they'd lost their parents.

Tadashi doubted Hiro even remembered, but the image of his three to four year-old brother waking up scared senseless had stuck with him through the years. Hiro looks exactly like he did back then, eyes wide and unfocused, gleaming with tears, breathing wild and hitching in his chest. Tadashi squeezes the younger boy's shoulders a bit, trying to bring him back to reality. "Otouto?" He calls softly, and with that, the dam is broken.

Small arms are thrown around him, and Hiro is hanging on to him like a lifeline, so tight it's difficult to breathe as his little brother  _sobs_. Tadashi locks his arms around Hiro, hushing him quietly, and is promptly thrown into another memory, this time of himself and his mother when he'd had nightmares as a child. He's taken her place now as he mutters,

"Shh, it's alright. It's okay, everything's okay." Tadashi could almost hear his mother's voice, like a forgotten symphony, and he silently thanks her for her help as his arms tighten involuntarily around her youngest boy, the son she didn't get to watch grow past a toddler. It takes a moment to realize that Hiro is muttering a mantra to calm himself into Tadashi's shirt as his breath stutters.

"You're okay, you're alive, you're okay, you're alive…" Tadashi's heart clenches as contrition twists his stomach, and he swallows against a closed throat to speak.

"Yeah, Otouto. I'm okay." He says sotto voce, and the only indication Hiro heard him is a faint tightened grip, if it was even possible.

Somehow, the night ends with Hiro curled up in Tadashi's lap, sobs dying into hiccups that eventually faded into soft breath as he fell asleep. Baymax waddled over with a cup of steaming tea, which Tadashi took gratefully, sipping silently and carefully before placing the cup back on the tray as Baymax stood stoic. Exhaustion weighs his eyelids down, and Tadashi settles his head gingerly on top of Hiro's with a fading thought of  _'Just a few minutes…'_

If Aunt Cass finds them sleeping like that, Hiro curled up, Tadashi's arms settled around him snoring lightly, in the morning, she tells no one any of it, although she does take a picture to keep for herself.

* * *

Hiro pumps a fist into the air, resisting the urge to cheer loudly, wary of his brother hearing him.

It were finally finished, there was absolutely nothing left to do, and honestly at the moment Hiro couldn't think of any way it  _wasn't_ perfect. All he had to do now was show the exoskeleton to his brother. And yet… he found himself hesitating, doubt churning in his stomach.  _'What if it doesn't work the way I want? What if the sensors start lagging, or the battery fails, or-or… What if Tadashi doesn't like it?'_  He can't help the thought. What if Tadashi got mad at him, and refused to wear it? What if Tadashi didn't believe it would work, so he wouldn't even try it? Hiro swallowed wringing his fingers as he circled around the device. Now that he thought about it, maybe the sensors could use a little more work, and there was no such thing as  _too_  detailed coding… Hiro shook his head violently.  _'No. I'm not stalling. Tadashi will love it.'_  He tells himself, giving a small nod, before inhaling deeply, and exhaling a long, calming breath. The self-reassurance doesn't stop his mouth from drying out as he steps up the stairs, nervous and jumpy. Hiro finds his brother in the living room with a book in his lap, a textbook from the look of it, and Hiro has to resist a laugh, the nerd was  _always_  studying.

"H-Hey, Tada-nii?" His voice is an octave higher and he clears his throat as Tadashi looks up, an eyebrow raised at his tone.

"Yeah, Otouto?" He replies, shutting the book as he senses an important conversation on the way. "What's up?"

"Remember that project I told you about a while back? Er- well more like didn't tell you about?" Recognition flicks across Tadashi's face as he listens, and the older boy nods. Hiro gives a nervous grin. "Well, I think it's about time I showed you what it is." Tadashi's face lights up and he smiles, before a thought crosses his mind and it turns into a frown.

"Well, I'd love too, but is it in the garage?" Tadashi's eyes flick to the stairs. He knew Hiro wouldn't be able to help him down by himself and Baymax was too much of an airbag to be of any use. Hiro shakes his head rapidly.

"No- well yeah, but I can bring it upstairs. But- here, hold on." Hiro dashes off, up the stairs to his and Tadashi's, for now only his, room two at a time, and grabs a bandana before bolting back down again, skidding to a stop next to his brother, holding up the article as he grins.

"It's a surprise." Tadashi rolls his eyes, but doesn't protest as the younger Hamada covers his eyes. "Can you see anything?" The voice sounds to his left, and Tadashi moves the bandana down slightly to cover where light was peaking in.

"Now I can't."

"Alright, I'll be back in a few, don't take it off, okay?" Tadashi gives a nod, and he listens as footsteps retreat down the stairs.

Hiro grabs the neurocranial transmitter and puts it on his head simply because it was easier to keep track of that way, and gathers the exoskeleton in his arms. It was rather light, the carbonfiber serving its use, and most of its weight went to the silver alloy coating that wasn't heavy at all. He manages to get up the stairs, a few bumps and almost-trips along the way, but his invention was sturdy and the tech was secure, so he wasn't worried. He only hoped Aunt Cass didn't notice him as he skirted the café.

Tadashi listened as his brother banged his way up the stairs, wondering what he could possibly be carrying that was causing him so much trouble.

"Alright, just give me a few more minutes." Hiro calls, breathing slightly heavy, and Tadashi feels his lips quirk up into a bit of a smile.

"Got it." There's some more noise, until footsteps echo in the room and fingers brush his hair as they untie the bandana.

Tadashi didn't know what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't  _this_. As his eyes adjust to the sudden light, there's something standing in front of him, and it takes Tadashi a minute to realize what it is, and when he does he inhales a sharp gasp as shock courses through his body and muddles his mind.

"Hiro…" His brother is fidgeting next to him when Tadashi looks up with wide eyes. "Is that…?" He can't even bring himself to finish the sentence. God if he was dreaming his subconscious had a really cruel sense of humor. Hiro nods at him as he swallows.

"It's and exoskeleton I started building after we found out… I just thought you wouldn't be able to stand sitting around for the rest of your life…" He says, ending it with a nervous chuckle that fades off as his brother stares at him for a few minutes. Bile starts to rise in his throat and Hiro is about to start backpedaling, apologizing even, when Tadashi pulls him down into a bone crushing hug with a wavering laugh.

"Oh my god Hiro, this is- I can't- I don't believe it! This is amazing!" Hiro gives a laugh, more of a relieved exhale.

"Oh good, I was worried you wouldn't like it." His older brother lets him go for a minute to look at him.

"Why  _wouldn't_ I like something like this, Hiro? I could walk again!" Tadashi looks over at the mechanism, and Hiro could  _swear_  his eyes were watering as he sucks in a sharp breath. "I could walk again." He repeats, tone quieter, and Hiro smiles at him.

"Yeah, that's kinda the point Bro." Tadashi glances up at him again, and Hiro's gaze turns serious. "But before I hook you up, I gotta say this. I don't really know how well they work. I got Fred to test them since he's about the same height as you, and I know they work," he pauses. If he tells Tadashi about the picturing what he's doing part, he could unintentionally corrupt the test, "to a certain extent. But I dunno if it'll be the same as before." Tadashi smiles at him.

"Otouto, if I could even stand again, I'd be happy." Hiro grins back.

"Well that is definitely possible." Hiro pulls the exoskeleton over, and starts hooking Tadashi up.

Tadashi is filled with a mixture of joy, shock, anticipation, and  _pride_. His little brother had come up with this, had developed it with the specific intention of helping his older brother, and his throat closes up at the thought. All of the hours, the late nights, the time and effort Hiro had put in for him. All while Tadashi had thought his little brother had stopped caring about him. Guilt leaves a bitter taste in his mouth as he swallows. He  _never_ should have doubted, and he  _never_  would again. His brother makes a small noise as he finishes hooking it up, a fairly simple process, before saying,

"Yes!" Hiro has a grin on his face, and Tadashi can't help but ask, albeit slightly impatient in tone, but not rudely, rather, enthusiastically.

"Did you get it?"

"Yep, that should do it! Oh, one last thing here." His brother slips a headband off his head that Tadashi instantly recognizes. "The neuro-band will send signals to the legs, make sure not to take it off." His brother places it on his head, before fiddling with his hair for a minute. "There! I ran most of it under your hair so that'll help hold it." Hiro stepped back, hands on his hips and chest puffed out in pride. "Now, try standing."

"Okay." Tadashi inhales a deep breath, bracing his arms on the wheelchair, gripping it tightly as he paused for a moment, before pushing himself up slowly.

"Yeah, go go go!" His brother cheers. The mechanics are quiet, almost silent, in fact, and after a moment, Tadashi is standing, albeit wobbly, vertigo rushing his senses, but he still takes a mild step. The legs hold.

"Hiro, these… I-I can stand. Walk. I… Hiro, I…" His younger brother, his genius little brother, is standing by his side, a gleeful smile on his face, and Tadashi leans over rapidly, slightly uncoordinated, gripping Hiro in a tight hug.

"Whoa, did you fall?" Hiro's voice is worried, nervous, and Tadashi can't help but smile.

"No. I'll never fall again, thanks to you. Thank you so much, Otouto. Thanks for not giving up on me." Hiro hugs him back just as tight.

"Anytime, Tada-nii."

* * *

Hiro couldn't convince Tadashi not to wear the exoskeleton to his next physical therapy appointment, and his little brother muttered something about Tadashi being extremely childish in wanting to shock all of the hospital members who said he'd never stand again, as well as show off his genius brother and amazing invention. Tadashi  _pranced_ in, and Hiro laughed at his over enthusiastic walk.

The doctors were shocked, and less ecstatic about the legs than his brother, worried about how it could affect his physical therapy. However, his brother made a quiet rebellion, a simple gesture of refusing to sit as they spoke, and the doctors knew arguing about it would be a lost cause, so they warily agreed, although Tadashi would still have to come in every two weeks, and physical therapy was to be done without the exoskeleton.

After that, the two met up with Honey Lemon, Wasabi, Gogo, and Fred, all offering pleased smiles when they saw him up and walking around.

The got home late after deciding to catch a movie with the group, and Hiro watched happily as his brother smiled like an idiot as he walked up the stairs to their once again shared room.

"You know, I'm never going to complain about those again." His brother says later, and Hiro looked over at his brother curiously from his desk.

"'Bout what?"

"Stairs."

* * *

"Ugh." Hiro groans, dropping his head onto the desk with a loud thump. A laugh comes from across the room.

"I told you not to wait till the last minute."

"Shaddup." Hiro says, hitting his head on the desk again, and another, mechanical voice springs up.

"That could cause bodily harm. I would recommend not doing it again." Hiro picks his head with a look that screamed he was done with everything today, and turns his head to glare at his older brother, who shrugs.

"You're the one who wanted to keep him on to keep an eye on me." Tadashi says, grinning at his brother, who has no argument for that. He had asked Tadashi to keep Baymax around for a while to make sure the legs wouldn't affect him adversely, and on the contrary, Baymax had reported Tadashi was actually doing better. The bot was currently serving as a sort of butler for the boys, getting them tea or water or whatever they asked for while keeping an eye on Tadashi.

Hiro gets up with a sigh to grab another book, and promptly falls flat on his face as he trips over his mess on his side of the room. The thud echoes through the room, followed closely by a loud yelp of pain.

"You alright, Otouto?" Tadashi asks concerned, and stands as Baymax walks over his brother.

"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" Hiro doesn't bother moving, his face smushed into the floor.

"Physical: 0, Mental: a zillion." He replies, voice muffled, and Tadashi laughs. Hiro turns his head, staring under his bed, only to catch sight of an old frayed jacket, and feel is breath catch in his throat as he's thrown back into a memory

_"_ _Someone has to help!"_

_"_ _TADA-NII!"_

Hiro swallows, about to push himself to his feet as he shoves the memory away, until he notices something.

"You gonna get off the floor Bonehead?" Tadashi asks from above, and Hiro mutters,

"In a minute." Tadashi shrugs, heading back to his side and collapsing on the bed, picking up his book once more.

Hiro pulls the old jacket out, and tries not to notice the small burnt marks from the embers that had filled the air, instead focusing on the pocket that was  _moving._  He sticks his hand in, praying he didn't get bit, and is surprised to find it's a small metal piece, and he pulls it out in confusion, only to realize it was one of his microbots, twitching around.

"My microbot?" He mutters in confusion. "But it's only attracted to other microbots. Damn thing must be broken." Hiro shrugs as he stands, dropping it in a petri dish and setting it on the desk.

"What's that?" Tadashi asks, not looking up, and Hiro replies,

"One of my microbots. It's gltiching out though." Hiro replies, and Tadashi hums in response as he's carried off by the book. Hiro gets back into homework as Baymax says,

"Your tiny robot is trying to go somewhere."

"Yeah well why don't you see where?" He mutters in response, adding, "It'd be  _real_  helpful." Sarcasm is lost on the bot, and after a minute the door slamming startles both boys. They look at each other before Hiro's eyes widen.

"Baymax?!"

 


	5. Chapter 4

_"Baymax?!"_  Hiro calls anxiously, and Tadashi's eyes widen as he realizes the bot left the room. A swerving car and honk of horns is heard outside, and the brothers scramble to grab their shoes and jackets, narrowly making it out the door before Aunt Cass could catch them.

"What did you say?!" Tadashi asks, out of breath as they dodge traffic and pedestrians, trying to get to the bot.

"I told him it'd be  _real_  helpful if he tried to figure out where my  _broken_  microbot was going! It's not my fault you didn't program him to understand sarcasm!" Hiro yells back, panting and twisting around another person who shouts as they pass. Tadashi throws an apology over his shoulder.

"Sorry-! He's a  _robot_  you  _Bonehead!_ " Tadashi shouts, and Hiro is saved from replying as Tadashi turns an alley way corner, and Hiro has to sprint to catch up, nearly toppling into a trash can as he takes the corner.

Both brothers are left panting and breathless as they come to a stop a few yards away from Baymax, who's standing in front of an abandoned warehouse.

"Baymax!" Tadashi calls, and the bot turns his head.

"Your little robot appears to want to go inside." Hiro walks over, taking the petri dish with an exhausted exhale.

"I told you already Baymax!" He glances down at the dish as he turns, and does a double take. "It's… broken…?" The bot moves towards the warehouse door, no matter which way he spins.

"Hiro?" Tadashi questions, and his younger brother ignores him, eyeing the building, before turning to Tadashi.

"Something's up." He says, and picks up the padlock on the door with a frown before spotting the window, and grinning. "Guess we'll just have to take the long way." Tadashi raises an eyebrow, and follows his little brother's gaze.

_"No."_

* * *

"Hiro Hamada,  _get down from there!_ " Tadashi yells as Hiro stands on top of Baymax, hooking his hand on the open window.

"Ooo my full name, so scary!" He shouts back, laughing, and Baymax cuts in with,

"Please exercise caution, a fall from this height could cause bodily harm." Tadashi groans, but his curiosity is starting to get to him as well, and he couldn't let his brother go in there all alone, right? He uses Baymax to help him up, a fleeting thought of,  _'This is_ not _what I intended him to be used for,'_  and Hiro reaches an arm down to help him up.

"This is like four different kinds of illegal, Hiro." His brother says disapprovingly, and the younger Hamada laughs.

"Add it to the list." Hiro says as he glances around the dark warehouse, only to jump alongside his brother at a loud squeaking noise that echoes through the facility. They whip around to see Baymax stuck in the window.

"Shhh!" Both boys gesture frantically, and the bot raises a hand, saying,

"Oh no. I appear to be stuck. Please allow me to let out some air." The loud noise of a balloon deflating now slices through the silent air, and both brothers face palm. They pull the now sad looking marshmallow inside, and leave him to reflate while they investigate. Dread turns in Tadashi's stomach.

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" The older Hamada mutters, and for once, Hiro mutters his agreement instead of telling him to lighten up as they follow the microbot. Tadashi hears machinery first, and tugs a distracted Hiro back by his hood as they stop behind a large container.

"Do you hear that?" He says with a hushed tone, and Hiro's about to snark back when the noise reaches his ears, and he nods. "Alright, stay behind me." Hiro doesn't argue, and Tadashi glances around the container first, before cautiously stepping out, arms slightly raised, Hiro hot on his heels. They silently approach the area in the center of the warehouse partitioned by plastic, and try to see what's inside, but the plastic is too clouded to make out much. A couple steps to the right, and both boys stop in shock.

"My microbots?" Hiro sputters in disbelief, dipping his hands into the container filled with the tiny black bots. "Someone's building more." Tadashi turns to see a board covered in papers with red lines connecting articles and dates, and a small orange symbol. A voice sounds behind them

"Hiro? Tadashi?" The monotone bot asks, and both boys jump, Hiro spinning around.

"Jeez, you gave me a heart attack!" Hiro yells, and Tadashi winces putting a hand up and opening his mouth to say something about Baymax being literal, but the white marshmallow beats him to it.

"My hands are equipped with defibrillators. Clear." Hiro jumps back in a panic, and Tadashi laughs, turning his attention back to the board.

"It's an…" Tadashi stops paying attention to his brother's voice as he reads, eyebrows furrowing together.  _'Kreitech? And a location, where is that…'_  He leans closer, before a clicking sound comes to his attention, and he turns his head, eyes widening as his brother yells "run!", a wave of microbots building up and coming towards them, directed by a man dressed in all black with a kabuki mask covering his face. Tadashi takes off after his brother, before they both glance back and Hiro shouts what his older brother was thinking.

"Aw, com'on!" Hiro bolts back, Tadashi sprinting after him, and his younger brother grabs one of the bots arms as Baymax says,

"I am not fast."

"No kidding! Tadashi you  _idiot!_ " He yells, and Tadashi can't help but mentally agree in that moment, over a completely different reason.

"We shouldn't be here!" Tadashi shouts back, shoving the white bot down the narrow passage next to Hiro, and trying to slam the door shut, only to be blow back. Both boys get to their feet and start running again, arriving at the door.

"Kick it down!" His brother yells at Baymax, who gives a weak kick. "Punch it!" A weak punch, a panicked noise from Hiro, and Tadashi looks around for another way out.  _'Wait!'_  He turns to Tadashi in a rush.

"Kick it down!" He repeats quickly, microbots approaching, and Tadashi gawks at him. "Your exoskeleton's made out of the same stuff as Baymax basically, so  _kick it down!"_  He yells, waving his hands, and Tadashi doesn't need to be told a third time. Putting his karate training to the test, he turns towards the door and executes probably the sloppiest roundhouse kick he's ever done since obtaining his black belt, but it seems to suffice from the way door is blown open, one of the handles that had been chaining it shut previously torn off as the wooden door slams into the side of the building.

"RUN!" He yells, shoving a shocked Hiro out the door and tugging a slow Baymax behind him. They don't stop until they're a good three blocks away and Hiro cannot physically run anymore, both boys halting, hands on their knees, as they struggle to breathe. An incredulous laugh escapes his brother, and Tadashi looks at him like he's insane.

"I didn't think that'd actually work!" He says gleefully, laughing in between gasps, and Tadashi groans in defeat.

"Com'on." He says as their breathing returns to normal, glancing back in the direction of the warehouse. After assuring himself that a wave of microbots wasn't about to come crashing down on them, he says, "We should go to the police." Hiro nods in his agreement, and the boys start walking in the direction of the station.

* * *

"I can't believe he didn't believe us!" His younger brother growls, and even Tadashi is a bit irritated.

"I can't believe he didn't believe me. I'm a legal adult!" He says, throwing his hands up in the air in a dramatic motion before pushing Baymax to his charging station and collapsing on his bed. Tadashi sighs. "It was a pretty crazy story though." Hiro mumbles his agreement as he too flops on his bed, holding the microbot above his head, before groaning in frustration.

"I don't understand!" He says finally, letting his arm holding the petri dish fall on to the bed. "I thought they were all destroyed in the accident." Tadashi closes his eyes against bitter memories, before his brother sucks in a sharp breath, and Tadashi opens them again, glancing over at Hiro. He's sitting up, a wide eyed stare at the microbot in his hands.

"Hiro?" Tadashi asks worriedly, and he looks up at Tadashi, swallowing before looking away again.  _'Not good.'_  Tadashi thinks, standing and walking over. "Hey don't do that. Talk to me." His younger brother refuses to meet his eyes, and Tadashi can see the tight grip he's got on the glass petri dish. Tadashi's worried he might shatter it.

"You won't like it." Hiro mutters, and his tone is odd. No, his tone is… angry.  _Furious_. Tadashi frowns, and is about to speak again when his brother suddenly stands, and glances up at him, eyes flashing, before pacing as he speaks. "It wasn't an  _accident_." His brother says, running hands through wild hair, and Tadashi is confused before he continues. "The fire at SFIT, my microbots being destroyed,  _you almost dying!_   _None of it was an accident!_ " Tadashi's eyes widen, and suddenly it all just  _clicks_ , and he  _remembers_ something. Tadashi flashes a hand out, feeling for Hiro's bed as everything gets blurry and his head spins.

_He can't breathe, the air is hot and smoke laden and just a simple inhale feels like someone's pouring molten led down his throat. There's so much pain, and then it slips away, and everything is numb as Tadashi idly wonders if this is what shock is supposed to be like. It's hard to stay awake, and he wonders why he's even trying to, but some part of his mind is screaming not to fall asleep. Another small inhale. More fire in his lungs, and he coughs and sputters, tipping his head to the side as the world blurs around the edges. Something's moving. He just accepts the fact, watching as a bunch of little black pieces crawl across the floor, and a part of him says he should know what they are, but that's the part getting smothered by ash and shock, so it's not very loud. He watches as a figure move through the room on a bed of black water. His vison is so blurred he can't even tell if it's a person anymore. Wait was the person trapped? Shouldn't he be helping? Oh he couldn't move, that's right. The figure stops, and Tadashi thinks it might be looking at him, before it turns and is gone in a flash. There are people rushing in, calling his name, at least he thinks they are, but he can't call back. It's okay though, they see him anyway, and he closes his eyes. There's voices in his ears for a short moment, before he sinks into unconsciousness._

"…nii! Tada-nii!" Hiro's kneeling in front of him, and he's sitting, he realizes, on the younger boy's bed, a hand pressed to his head. His brother looks at him, gaze worried and fearful.

"Hiro." He mumbles, still disorientated as he tries to get his grasp on the here and now back.

"Are you okay?" Hiro asks, and Tadashi pauses to get his bearings for a moment before answering.

"…Yeah." Hiro relaxes slightly, before asking,

"What just happened?" Another pause from his older brother.

"I remembered something." Hiro stiffens. "From the fire. Hiro, I think you're right. I don't think that fire was an accident."

* * *

"No." Tadashi states simply, tone stern.

"Why not?" His younger brother whines, and Tadashi crosses his arms.

"Because it's reckless, foolhardy, and dangerous. We'll tell the police."

"They won't believe us! They didn't last time! Tadashi we can't just let him get away with this!" Hiro yells, frustrated. "He almost  _killed_ you!" Tadashi's gaze softens a bit.

"He won't get away with it Hiro, the police will do their job. It's not our place, and it isn't  _safe._ "

"What part of " _they won't listen!"_ don't you  _understand_!?" Hiro shouts back

"We'll just have to make them, Hiro." His tone is calm, reasonable, and Hiro  _absolutely hates it._  It's like he didn't even care he almost died, like it didn't even  _matter_.

"Fine!" Hiro snaps. "If you don't care that's fine! But I'm not gonna let some scumbag get away with  _almost murdering my brother_!" Hiro snatches the microbot off of the desk, glaring at Tadashi.

"Hiro, wait-" Hiro cuts him off.

" _What if it was me?_ " He spits, and Tadashi recoils at the words. Hiro stomps down stairs, and the garage door echoes through the house as its slammed shut. Tadashi sinks onto Hiro's mattress with a sigh.

If it was Hiro?

Well, Tadashi would be doing the exact same thing.

* * *

Hiro milled about the garage, trying to come up with a new plan. He'd though about making another exoskeleton for himself, maybe a full one, but it would take too  _long_  to adjust the coding to fit him and then replace the genetic lock as well as adjust the size and dimensions. Let alone rebuild the entire neurocranial transmitter  _from scratch_. He sighed, and picked up Megabot off the desk where he'd been sitting for the past few months. Maybe he could do something with it… The garage door opens and there's a soft knock on the door. Hiro sets the bot down and glances over.

"What?" He asks, tone unhappy, as he stares at his brother who was standing sheepishly by the door frame.

"I came to apologize." He says, and Hiro raises an eyebrow, crossing his arms.

"Oh really now?" His older brother nods, and pulls out a large bag of gummy bears with a timid smile.

"Sorry?"

"Apology accepted." Hiro says, rushing over, snagging the bag, and plopping down in the armchair. He tears it open and promptly stuffs a handful in his mouth before speaking.

"'s da aww?" It takes a moment for Tadashi to figure out the question was  _"Is that all?"_ , and he shakes his head after going through a mental translation.

"I'm in." He says simply, and Hiro's eyes widen. He swallows as he jumps up.

"Really?!" Tadashi nods again.

"Yep. You were right, someone's gotta stop him, and we don't even know what he's planning with your microbots. He could hurt a lot of people. Besides, like I'm gonna let my bonehead of a little brother go out there and fight alone." A big grin breaks out on his little brother's face.

"That's great, because I had this  _awesome_ idea…"

* * *

Tadashi sighs as he looks over the basic designs. Part of him was screaming it was a bad idea, but a larger part knew that his brother would do it no matter what he said, and if he refused to help, then Hiro would just go by himself, and Tadashi wasn't going to let that happen.

"What about you?" He asks finally, eyeing his little brother. Hiro simply grins.

"Mines already finished, but someone stole it from me so I'll have to steal it back." Tadashi rolls his eyes, handing back the notebook.

"It looks pretty good, but-" Tadashi's cut off by a ringing phone, and he fumbles with it for a second before answering.

"Hello?"

"Tadashi!" Tadashi recognizes Honey Lemon's voice, and watches as his little brother heads to the computer to start filling out the designs. He takes the phone away from his mouth.

"Hang on a sec Hiro!" Distractedly, he brings the phone back up to listen to his friend.

"We're going into town together in a few days and wanted to know if we could stop by the café for a little while and visit!"

"Uh, yeah- Hiro!- sure. When are you stopping by?" He pulls the phone away again, tapping his brother on the shoulder and pointing something out on the screen. His brother nods and edits it while Tadashi brings the phone back up.

"…is that alright?" _'A few days for a visit? Probably in like three, should be fine.'_  He thinks, rushing for answer.

"Yeah, sure, that's fine!" He says into the phone. Hiro edits the design a little with a snicker, and Tadashi glares at his little brother, who puts his hands up and fixes it once more.

"Alright, see ya then." Honey Lemon says brightly, and Tadashi bids a distracted farewell.

"Hiro, what don't you understand about "Hang on a sec"?" Tadashi asks as he shuts the phone, and Hiro grins.

"Sorry, I just want to get started as soon as possible." Tadashi sighs, but leans over his brothers shoulder to examine the screen as they get to work.

* * *

"I feel ridiculous." Tadashi says with a sigh, and even Hiro crinkles his nose a bit.

"Yeah the design could use some work. The colors didn't come out quite right. But whatever, this is just a test run anyway." He says, and tips his head towards the large stack of wood sitting on two cinderblocks. "Give it a shot." Hiro backs up, and Tadashi gets in his stance. Hiro makes a mental note to put a bit more armor on the forearms and slim it down around the torso, shoulders, and hips to make it easier to move.  _'Definitely a little too bulky, if Tada-nii's gonna be doing Karate then he's gonna need to be able to move.'_  Tadashi breathes for a moment, before bringing his hand down in a simple hammer-fist. The planks of wood splinter into pieces, and Hiro grins wildly, throwing his hands up.

"It worked! And I didn't even have to redo all the coding from the exoskeleton!" Tadashi grins back as he relaxes, until they hear voices in the hall, coming towards the garage. Both brothers' eyes widen, and Hiro scrambles over as Tadashi tries to unhook the armor, and Hiro tugs the helmet off his head, careful not to remove the transmitter with it. That's about as far as they get when the door opens and the conversation dies as their friends step through the door. Both brothers give a nervous grin.

"…Tadashi?" Honey Lemon asks, confused, and then Fred steps forward with a huge smile.

"Duuuude you look totally wicked." He says, circling the older Hamada, and Tadashi lets out a long, suffering sigh. "What's with the superhero garb smaller Hamada?" He says, glancing over at Hiro.

"And why is  _Tadashi_  wearing carbon fiber underpants?" Gogo asks, popping a bubble. Hiro glances up at his older brother, who simply raises an eyebrow in response, the unasked  _'Are you going to tell them or should I?'_  Hiro sighs.

"We're going after the man in the kabuki mask." A moment of silence, before a collective,

"What?!"

* * *

"I don't know…" Honey Lemon says uncertainly after Hiro finishes telling his story, "Don't you think this is a little dangerous?" Her eyes flick up to Tadashi as she speaks.

"A little?!" Wasabi asks, tone incredulous. Tadashi sighs.

"Yeah, but Hiro isn't backing down from this one, and if I don't go he'd just do it himself." Tadashi says.

"Damn straight!" Hiro adds in agreement, before crumpling under a glare from his older brother. "I mean dang straight!" He says with a nervous laugh. "Besides, we'll be careful." He adds with a firm nod.

"Dude, we are so in!" Fred says, bouncing in excitement.

"We?!" Tadashi and Wasabi both sputter in disbelief, and Fred nods enthusiastically.

"We could totally be an awesome superhero team, like the Avengers or something!"

"No way." Tadashi says, shaking his head, and Hiro frowns at his older brother. A sharp glance from Tadashi has him swallowing his protests. "We aren't bringing you guys into this. It's dangerous, you could get hurt."

"And what about you two?" Gogo asks, popping her gum. "What, are the two of you suddenly immortals?" Tadashi flinches at that. Honestly, he was still hoping he could convince his brother to let this go, and if he couldn't, then he'd just have to make sure he didn't get hurt.

"No but…" Tadashi searches for a reason, before Honey Lemon interrupts him.

"We're your friends. We aren't going to let you charge into this alone." She says with a soft smile, "Let us help you." Tadashi sighs, knowing he's already lost the argument. The group recognizes the defeated sound, and smiles to each other.

"Could be interesting." Gogo says. Fred fists pumps, yelling,

"Hell yeah!" Wasabi looks at the group uncertainly.

"But we're nerds, what can we do?" Hiro cuts in this time, a wide smile stealing over his features.

"Oh,  _trust me_ , you can be so much more."

* * *

Tadashi sighs as he sits on his mattress, his little brother humming as he pulls a notebook off his desk.

"You do realize how crazy this is, right Otouto?" Hiro flops on his bed with a pencil, flipping open to a few pages as he grins.

"Sure. Crazy  _awesome!_ " Tadashi shakes his head, but can't repress the curl of his lips.

"Just promise me something Otouto." Hiro pauses at his brother's serious tone, and looks up. "No unnecessary risks, alright?" Hiro rolls his eyes, but says,

"Yeah, sure. I promise Tada-nii."

* * *

Tadashi wakes up early the next morning, yawning tiredly as he hooks up the exoskeleton with a now practiced ease, before slipping the neurocranial transmitter on and standing. He smiles as he finds his little brother snoring, curled around his notebook with a pencil still in his hand, and gently pries them out of his arms, setting them on the desk, before picking up his laptop. He starts off the day in a good mood after recognizing that fact that, even if his brother had stayed up late, no nightmares had awoken him yet. He heads down stairs and gets a pot of coffee started, grabbing a cup for himself and popping some bread in the toaster before settling at the table and opening his computer.

Something had be bothering him for a while, but with all the chaos in the last few days with Hiro and his newly developed armor, he hadn't had time to check it out. He opens the google webpage, clicks images, and searches "sparrow", and promptly feels like an idiot for not narrowing his categories. He thinks for a minute, before adding orange and tagging clipart. A few minutes of searching, and he shakes his head. He adds the word "Sanfransokyo", and continues. It's a few moments of nothing, and he frowns, pausing. He goes back up to the search bar and replaces orange with red, untagging clipart. The first result is a digital piece of artwork depicting a detailed brick wall with the exact symbol he'd seen in the warehouse, painted on in blood. Tadashi opens the webpage.

"Urban legends…?" He questions, skimming the results, before stopping suddenly as his eyes catch on a familiar figure. The section is titled "Masked Vigilante" and Tadashi raises an eyebrow at the stereotypical name. He mutters the sentence to himself as he reads.

"Stalks through the streets at night serving justice to the ones the police can't touch, often in unethical and illegal ways…" He turns his face to the figure clad in all black with a trench coat hanging on his frame. The "mask" in this case looks like a stereotypical ski mask. Tadashi eyes the date, pleased to see it long predated the SFIT fire, and continues scrolling, until he reaches the picture. His eyes widen as he reads.

"Alternate dimension: Red Sparrow?" He clicks the link, and it takes him to a full page based on the legend.

"Rumored to have been built somewhere in the darkest depths of Sanfransokyo, project "Red Sparrow" is said to have opened a portal into another dimension used for… teleportation… however the project went wrong and was destroyed, covered up by the government, and never spoken of again… The Dimension in Which Things Disappear: Red Sparrow. It's unknown what the alternate dimension appears as because any data belonging to Red Sparrow was incinerated, and the only test pilot ever to see the other side never returned…" Tadashi jumps as the toaster pops, his heart rate accelerating slightly, before sighing as himself, pulling a crumpled up picture out of his pocket and smoothing it out, dropping it next to the screen for comparison. A perfect match.

Frowning, he pulls up a blank tab. He types in "Project Red Sparrow" in web, and grabs his toast while he waits, smearing on some jelly before returning to his seat as he munches on it idly, the page still loading, until it stops. It gives him a search error, saying illegal characters had been typed and he frowns, deleting the search and retyping it. It gives him the same error once more, and Tadashi's eyes narrow. He deletes the "row" and presses enter, and pages pop up. Retyping "row" he searches again, receiving the error once more. He switches back to the other tab, screenshots it, and prints it before clicking back to return to the original Urban Legends page.

It gives him a loading screen, before a "Page Could Not Be Found" error occurs, and Tadashi's eyes widen. He tries to reload it a few times, but it turns into an "Address Does Not Exist" error. He sits back in his chair, mulling over the information. It was unlikely the urban legend was true, and was more likely that the page had been a prank, or a virus. His lips curl downward again, and he shuts down his search engine before running anti-virus, then shutting down his computer. He glances at the picture again, mind flicking to a novel that had be previously popular featuring a similar symbol. He supposed it was probably just someone's artistic take on it, but folds the paper anyway, and slips the article into his pocket.

It was probably nothing, but Tadashi figured he wouldn't risk it anyway.

* * *

Hiro wakes up to the smell of  _mouthwatering_  pancakes, and groans as he rolls out of bed with a yawn. He spots his notebook on the table, although he couldn't remember placing it there last night, and shrugs before heading downstairs, rubbing his eyes.

His brother's standing in front of the stove, a grimace on his face. Hiro gives him a confused look.

"Tada-nii?" His brother doesn't respond as he absently flips a pancake. A smirk tugs on Hiro's face, and he waits until his brother is pouring the batter for another one before sneaking over.

"BOO!" He yells as loud as he can, and his brother jumps with a yelp, flinging the measuring cup while dropping the batter all over the stove and whipping around, Hiro ducking the instinctive karate strike that follows with the hand that's holding the spatula. Hiro's obstreperous laughter echoes through the room.

"HIRO!" Tadashi yells, which only serves to make the boy laugh even more arduously, bending over with his arms wrapped around his stomach and tears beading in his eyes. Tadashi can't hold his anger for very long as he watched his little brother laugh, and he flicks off the stove before grabbing his brother in one fell swoop, hooking his arms around Hiro and throwing the boy over his shoulder.

"P-put me down!" He says, still giggling wildly, and Tadashi chuckles as he speaks,

"I'll give you something to laugh about, bonehead!" His tone is mischievous, and when Hiro is dropped on the couch he puts his arms up.

"Tadashi  _don't you da-_ " The vehement warning is cut off by more laughter, with a more strident tone, as Tadashi brushed feather light fingers against the boy's side. "S-s-stop!" He squeals, trying to twist away, and Tadashi says with a snicker,

"Are you gonna clean up the kitchen?"

"N-never!" He gasps out, and Tadashi pokes him in the side, earning another high pitched crow and a breathless, "O-Okay!" He released the younger boy with smirk, crossing his arms as Hiro scrambled to the other side of the couch trying to catch his breath.

"Better get to work if you want your gummy bear pancakes while they're still warm."

"I was forced into agreeing." He mutters, but he's grinning and gets up off the couch, and Tadashi follows him into the kitchen, tossing Hiro a wet rag as he picks up the now empty measuring cup and puts more mix in it while trying to save the deformed pancake on the griddle. He lets it cook for a little while, and they sit in comfortable silence before Hiro asks,

"Hey Tada-nii, what was up with that weird look earlier?" Tadashi looks over at him, confused.

"You were staring at the pancakes like they were some sort of equation that would cure cancer or bring world peace or something, and you couldn't figure it out. You didn't even hear me when I said your name the first time." Understanding alights in his gaze, and Tadashi hesitates, before clearing his throat.

"It was nothing Otouto, just thinking about how I could improve Baymax's coding. Now that I think about it, a lot of people get sarcastic when they're in pain, so he should probably be able to tell the difference."

"Ohhh, well y'know you could probably just edit his voice detection/command program and be good to go." He offers helpfully, and Tadashi nods.

"Yeah, I'll get it done sooner or later." He lets out a sigh at the half burnt pancake in front of him, and ultimately decides to trash it and make more. Hiro finishes up the cleaning, and Tadashi tips his head to the table.

"Just hope I didn't fling batter on them." Hiro rushes to his seat and digs in, while Tadashi frowns at the pancake he was about to flip. He  _never_  lied to Hiro, but a feeling, call it intuition, said something wasn't right about that old urban legend, and he didn't want his baby brother involved in any part of it.

* * *

"Aunt Cass, I'm going out for a bit!" He calls and shrugs on his blazer, grabbing his moped helmet. Tadashi had sent Hiro upstairs to finish his homework, with  _many_  complaints, and had decided it was time to go back warehouse and see if he could find out anything else.

"Alright hon! Oh, do you think you could pick up a gallon of milk on the way back? We're running low!" He pulls out his wallet and counts a few bills.

"Sure thing! Be back in a little while!" He calls back.

"Drive safe!"

"'Course!" He snaps his helmet on and hops on his moped, turning on the engine and tracing the route back to the warehouse before parking and getting off, leaving the helmet on the seat. The door was still broken, so he crept inside, keeping his steps light as headed deeper into the warehouse, only to find nothing. All of the microbots, the machinery creating them, the board full of notes, all of it was gone. He looked around for about fifteen minutes before sighing and dropping his gaze to the floor as he rubbed his neck. A flash of white catches his eye, and he glances over, walking a few steps to pick it up.

It was a piece of worn newspaper, but the headline and picture were still easily seen.

Alistair Krei's "Kreitech" is the Next Big Technology Manufacturer. Underneath it was a picture of none other than Alistair Krei himself.

_'Something odd is going on here.'_

* * *

"Aunt Cass, I'm back!" He lets his helmet hang on his arm with the milk as the door to the shop closes behind him. That's when he realizes it's empty. His heart jumps into his throat. "Aunt Cass!?" He calls, tone panicked, only to relax when he receives a reply.

"Tadashi, Honey, could you come upstairs? There's someone here to talk to you." Her voice is off, and fear settles in his stomach again as he takes the steps two at a time.

"Aunt Cass, what's going…" he stops at the sight of two suited men standing between him and Aunt Cass, who has Hiro behind her, the boy glaring at them, "on…" he finishes as they walk over to him.

"Tadashi Hamada?" Tadashi draws himself up to his full height as he's spoken to, swallowing his fear.

"Yeah. What's going on here?" He asks. Both men show a badge, and Tadashi does his best not to be intimidated when they do.

"Homeland Security. We want to ask you a few questions."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Ohhhh Tadashi what have you gotten yourself into? Also "immortals" Hahaha ha I have no life. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I just wanted to say a few things before getting to the reviews. As you can tell, I switched up the whole Port scene and took my own spin with how the team finds out, which basically means I took out a huge chunk of action. I do realize this, and I haven't decided if I can fit something akin to the Port scene anywhere else, so I don't know if I'll have a version of it or not. HOWEVER, I WILL have more action, I promise! The next chapter should have an entire scene, I think, but I dunno if it'll be the port scene or not. Also as you can tell I've already started doing my own variation of the plot. It's still Yokai vs. the team and all that, but I am going to do it differently. Also I'm working on putting Baymax in this story more, so bear with me on that. I think that's it, so keep an eye out for the next chapter! Any questions, feel free to ask! sheepishshipper out~


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter is really rough because I didn't have time to reread so sorry!

_"Homeland Security. We want to ask you a few questions."_

Tadashi is pretty smart. Now he might not be on his little brother's level of  _genius_ , but he could hold his own fairly well. So it doesn't take long for all of the pieces to click into place, and he is  _well_ -aware that the men standing in front of him were probably connected to the odd phenomenon he'd witnessed online earlier. After all it was unlikely  _Homeland Security_  would get involved with minor street bets and B&E on a property that wasn't federal.

He's also well-aware of the fact that they were  _trained_  to read people for tells, and he wonders momentarily if they'll arrest him if they think he's involved or found anything out about Silent Sparrow, something Tadashi was starting to believe existed more and more by the second.

It's a snap decision that a part of himself is telling him he would thoroughly it regret later, while the other part, a voice in his head that sounded  _way_  to similar to his younger brother, endorsed it.

Tadashi Hamada doesn't swallow, or let his hands shiver with the small sense of panic mixed with adrenaline he was feeling. Instead he smiles.

"Sure, although I don't know how much help I can be." He was going to lie to the government, because he couldn't shake the feeling that what he and his younger brother had stumbled into was much, _much_  bigger. Hiro would be so proud of him. "You mind following me into the kitchen so I can put this away?" He says, a small gesture to the milk carton still hanging on his arm, and they give a curt nod in response. Aunt Cass looks flabbergasted, and Hiro gives him an incredulous look as the suited men follow hm into the kitchen. He fixes his little brother with a glare that quite simply says,  _"If you don't keep quiet, I_ will _kill you,"_  which is enough to have the younger boy swallowing any complaints as he treads after his brother, Aunt Cass following blindly as she tried to process what was going on.

Tadashi tugs the fridge open, setting the milk down carefully in the door, before turning to the agents. He mentally notes they chose not to introduce themselves.

"Would you like anything?" He offers, and they give a gruff "no, thank you" in response and he shrugs a little, pouring three cups and walking over to his family, pressing a cup into Hiro's and Aunt Cass' hands, registering tense stares on him as he walks back, taking a seat for himself and motioning for the others to do the same.

"What is it you want to know?" He asks as the men take their seats, Hiro and their aunt opting to stand by Tadashi. One of the men clears his throat.

"Well, firstly, do you mind my asking what it is you have on your legs?" Tadashi is confused for a moment, before some piece of his mind supplies something about looking for dangerous situations or weaponry, and he realizes they might think the exoskeleton could potentially harm them.

"This?" He asks, twisting his leg out to make the sleek metal visible, and doesn't bother trying to keep the pride out of his tone. "It's an exoskeleton. My little brother made it," He says, glancing up at his brother, "I don't know if you've heard about it, but I was involved with the fire over at SFIT, and I lost the ability to stand. These do it for me." The men look surprised, impressed even, and Tadashi grins up at his brother who's standing next to him. Hiro gives a tight grin back, and the second of the men speaks.

"Have you considered selling the design to the military?" His tone is blunt, almost harsh, and Tadashi resists the same flinch that attacks his little brother, and swallows as he frowns. Hiro's technology had been used for enough evil. He gives his brother a quick glance before speaking

"Well, actually it's a specialized piece of prototype technology, and the designs would have to be changed for  _every_  individual, so right now it's not possible to mass produce." He says, letting out a little bit of nervous laughter, before adding, "If Hiro wants to simplify the design, I wouldn't mind helping him find a sponsor in the medical field though." He adds, and both of them frown slightly, before the first one clears his throat once more.

"That's disappointing. Anyway, that isn't exactly what we came to talk about." The man's gaze darkens slightly. "What do you know about Project Silent Sparrow?" Tadashi stares for a moment, giving the man a confused look. Aunt Cass goes pale in the face, although none of the others seem to notice. All eyes are on Tadashi.

"You mean that old urban legend that pops up every few weeks? I'm afraid I can't be of much use, the kids on the street are more likely to know than I am. I was curious as to what it was so I tried to look it up, but my laptop was having internet troubles." He says, shrugging. "Something about alternate dimensions and teleportation, y'know, the usually sci-fi fantasy stuff. That's all I really got before the webpage shut down, and my search engine stopped working. Why did you wanna know?" He asks, mimicking confusion and curiosity, before raising an eyebrow. "Wait you don't actually think it exists, do you?" The guys sit there stonily, giving nothing away, and Tadashi laughs, although a stone is weighing down his stomach. "Take it from a science and robotics major at SFIT: with the tech we have now, it's impossible." The men nod their agreement.

"Have you noticed or seen anything or anyone odd lately?" Tadashi draws his eyebrows together again, and there's a moment of silence before he shrugs and says,

"Unless you count an eighty year-old wearing something really inappropriate for her age I guess not." His tone is apologetic. "Sorry I can't be of much help." The men wave it off, standing, and Tadashi does the same. "Is that all?"

"Yes, Mr. Hamada. Thank you for your cooperation." The man says, dipping his head slightly in thanks, and Tadashi chuckles.

"Not a problem. Let me show you out."

Aunt Cass and Hiro were alone in the kitchen for a few moments, before Tadashi walked back in and sat down in a chair with a tired sigh.

"I never want to do that again," He mutters, and his mind helpfully supplies that with Hiro's antics he probably will. Aunt Cass stands silent for a moment.

"… I think I'm going to go take a nap." She says, not wanting an explanation, and walks away slowly. Hiro waits until she's gone, before saying.

"What the  _hell_?" Tadashi doesn't even have the energy to bother with correcting his brother's language. "Silent Sparrow? Strange individuals? What have you been  _doing_?" The stunned, uncomprehensive look on Hiro's face has laughter bubbling up in Tadashi's chest, and Hiro glares at him. Tadashi pulls the webpage article out of his pocket along with the crumpled drawing and new paper clipping from the warehouse.

"Before we were chased out of that warehouse, I was looking at that board. I didn't have time to read much, but I caught  _this_ ," he points at the wrinkled picture, "and figured out that Krei tech was somehow involved with Yokai." Hiro's head jerks up at the name Tadashi had bestowed upon the man in the mask, but says nothing as he returns his gaze to the papers. "I decided to see if I could pull anything up on this drawing, and I found an old urban legends website. But before I could do much else, google rejected my search and the webpage was deleted." Tadashi purposely doesn't mention anything about his return to the warehouse.

"Whoa, whoa, wait,  _rejected_ your search? And  _deleted_  the webpage?" Tadashi nods slowly.

"Otouto, I think this is a lot bigger than we thought."

* * *

"Yoooo, what up Hamada house?" Fred says over the phone line, sitting in a beanbag chair with his legs on the top and his head hanging where his leg would normally be, and he hears younger high pitched snickering accompanied by a deeper harsh shushing. He laughs a little internally at the brothers' antics.

"Hey, Fred…" The older brother starts reluctantly, and Fred perks up a little. "Could you come over? We could use your help with some… ideas." Fred rolls out of his chair onto the floor and jumps up with a hand on his head to keep his beany in place.

"Sure thing Doc, I'll be there in a few." He can practically hear Tadashi scowling over the line.

"Please stop calling me that Fred." His tone is resigned, and Fred laughs as the line clicks closed.

"Hey Heathcliff, I need a ride to the Hamada House!" He calls, and skips while he walks, wondering what the brother's wanted his help with.

* * *

"I can't believe we're doing this." Tadashi says, grimacing, and Hiro grins wickedly.

"Well we both know that if anyone's gonna come up with some idea about how all this fits together, it'll be him."

"Fred is in the house!" The voice calls up the stairs, and Tadashi smiles at his entrance. "Where are the two literal brothers in arms?"

"Upstairs, Fred!" Tadashi calls down, and the sound of Fred hopping up the steps follows.

"What up smaller and larger Hamada?" He says as he walks in the room, claiming Hiro's desk chair as his own as he sits and proceeds to spin. "I'm assuming this isn't a social call since it's more like you flashed the Fredzilla Signal."

"Yeah, we need your help with some-" Hiro cuts his older brother off with an excited tone.

"Super villain business!" Fred perks up.

"Dude, are we talking Spiderman car-jacking or the first Avengers level villainy?" Hiro gives a wide grin, and Tadashi puts his face in his palms.

"More like  _Hydra Conspiracy._ " And his little brother called  _him_  a nerd. Fred stops spinning with a wide eyed look.

"Seriously?" Hiro nods. "Dude, spill it!"

"This has government conspiracy written all over it!" Fred says, throwing his hands up, and Tadashi frowns. Hiro nods along with him.

"I know, but we're having trouble tying the pieces together. Obviously Yokai was somehow a part of the project, but how does Krei Tech fit in?" Fred brings a hand to his chin.

"Well, maybe Krei Tech sponsored the project or something? I mean the company has billions, they're gonna invest it somewhere."

"But that brings into question what Yokai is after. Does he want to destroy all traces, or restart it? Is he targeting Krei Tech?" Tadashi puts in and the other two nod.

"Well," Fred says, "Assuming he's targeting KT maybe he's pissed the project got shut down. Or maybe something went wrong and he wants revenge." He pauses. "Or he could be going after Krei Tech to  _force_  them to bring it back."

"Why Silent Sparrow?" Fred turns to Hiro, gaze dark.

"Teleportation. A lot of bad things could be done with that, a lot of destruction could be caused."

"That's assuming he wants to restart the project." Tadashi counters, and both look over at him.

"You think he wants it destroyed?" Hiro asks, curiosity in his voice, and Tadashi pauses.

"I don't know." The older Hamada says eventually. "I came across another article on the same Urban Legends website. The Masked Vigilante." Hiro gives him a confused look, but Fred's gaze alights in understanding.

"Targets those who the police can't touch, serving justice in often cruel and illegal ways." Fred narrates in response, and Tadashi nods.

"The picture looked almost exactly like the man we saw with the substitution of a Kabuki mask." Fred gives a thoughtful look, his English major mind kicking in.

"Well let's think. What could the Kabuki mask represent?" Fred looks at Tadashi expectantly, who furrows his eyebrows together in thought. He was the one who remembered the most of their Japanese heritage and the stories he'd heard as a child that were derived from it.

"Typically that style is used in stories and theater to depict the Samurai." Fred nods in response.

"So he thinks he's playing the hero." Fred states. There's a moment of silence before Tadashi starts to speak slowly again.

"That paint… it's used to signify shamanic possession…" Tadashi looks up. "The idea that a Samurai can do the impossible comes from the fact that he allows himself to be possessed by a god…" Fred's eyes widen marginally.

"We're going up against a villain who thinks he's part-god."

* * *

"There! Give them a shot, Wasabi." Hiro says, jumping back a few feet, and the green laser blades sprung to life, Wasabi jumping in surprise. He eyed them for a moment, and Hiro took a step forward, circling him. "The confinement field needs to be edited a bit more, and the precision should be adjusted…" He mutters too himself, before stepping back again. "Try swinging them." Hiro says keeping his eye trained on the device. Wasabi does as he's asked, and an impressive buzzing sound emanates from the devices. The plasma is relatively stable, but Hiro frowns as he watches some of the lines quiver and fade before returning. "Gonna need to improve the stability too… Alright Wasabi that's enough. We still have a little bit of work ahead of us." The younger boy finally moves his gaze up with a grin, which Wasabi returns with a slight worry. "This is going to be awesome."

* * *

"Ready to give it a go, Honey?" The tall blonde smiles at Hiro, and Tadashi kicks back in a chair at the lab,  _several_  feet away. Hiro steps back a bit as well, but keeps his eyes trained on the bag resting on her waist. This was going to be particularly difficult since he couldn't  _see_  it working. "Give it a shot." He says, and Honey taps the screen rapidly, Hiro barely able to keep up with the elements she selects. An orb goes in… And doesn't come out. Tadashi gets to his feet, yelling,

"Throw it Honey!" His tone is frantic, and the bag is off her shoulder and up in the air before it explodes in a mess of powered color, settling a fine coat over Honey and Hiro, while Tadashi had been far enough away to escape. Tadashi sprints over. "Are you alright?!" Hiro and Honey laugh, while Tadashi gives them an incredulous look.

"Guess we still have some work to do huh."

* * *

"This is going to be totally awesome dude." Tadashi laughs and he makes a final adjustment to Fred's suit.

"Alright, give it a go!" He says, stepping back and watching as Fred launches into the air, spewing fire outside the SFIT laboratory. Tadashi held a fire extinguisher in his hand just in case, but that didn't stop the panic that was suddenly clawing at his heart as the orange licked the sky, and he was thrown back in time to the showcase, the smoke, the heat, suffocating…

Tadashi stumbles back a few steps, the extinguisher falling from his hands with a soft thud into the grass as he put his hands up against fire that wasn't there, tripping and landing with a slightly painful jolt that's enough to bring him back to reality as Fred stops his antics and rushes over.

"Whoa, dude you alright?" He says, throwing down a clawed hand. Tadashi's throat is tight as he clears it, and he doesn't know if Fred had seen or realized what just happened.

"I'm fine!" He says, forcing a laugh. "Wasn't watching where I was going. I think you should have Hiro look over it in action a final time, I couldn't see anything wrong." Fred frowns, but plays along.

"Sure thing Doc."

* * *

Hiro frowns as he makes an adjustment to the fire spewing device on Fred's suit. The moment he'd seen it he knew something was wrong, and it was a mistake Tadashi would  _never_ make, he definitely should have noticed it. Most of the lab it dark now, most of the people having left earlier, and Hiro glances over at his brother, who's passed out in a chair nearby.

"Something isn't right…"He mutters to himself as he works.

* * *

"Go ahead." Tadashi says, and Hiro is the one standing back this time. Gogo wobbles and throws her arms out, trying to move forward and falling. Tadashi gives a slight wince, reaching a hand down, but she stands herself, and her first movements are unsteady, but she gets the hang of it quickly. "Suspension still needs a little bit of editing." Tadashi says, tipping his head back to Hiro, who nods his agreement, saying,

"Needs to be strengthened a bit so that there's less strain on her ankles." Tadashi nods this time and they both look back at the girl speeding around the lab. Hiro frowns.

_'He catches something small like that but not something big like the problem with Fred's suit?'_

* * *

Hiro laughs at the disbelieving look on Tadashi's face.

"Otouto, remember what I said about  _unnecessary risks_?" Hiro rolls his eyes.

"This isn't  _unnecessary,_  we'll need it because the microbots offer an advantage if we're ground-bound." Tadashi simply stares at his little brother as the boy continues to edit his suit.

* * *

"We're gonna need more space to do the final tests and training." Hiro says, frowning at the lab space they had available. Tadashi nods, and Fred pipes up.

"We could always use my place." Gogo's bored gaze moves to him.

"Don't you live under a bridge?"

"Nah, although it'd be pretty interesting. My back yard's like the size of SFIT." He says nonchalant in response, and the entire team gaps at him. He gives them confused looks. "What?"

No one speaks when they arrive at his mansion, everyone just stares in shocked silence.

* * *

Hiro grins as he watches everyone get used to their suits, practicing and coming up with more efficient ways of getting the mask from Yokai. He turns to his brother, who was fiddling with the communications on his helmet. Getting Tadashi into his respective suit had actually been less of a struggle than he'd originally thought it would be, and Hiro was excited to show off the fruit of his and his brother's combined efforts. He wanders over to his brother's side, whose slipping the helmet back on his head.

"Baymax?" Tadashi asks, and a robotic voice replies,

"Yes, Tadashi?" The voice is loud and clear, and Tadashi gives a short nod in response. He turns to his younger brother, who's staring at him expectantly, and is pleased to see the scanner is working as well.

"Ready to go?" Hiro asks, a hint of impatience in his voice, and Tadashi purposely "hmms" in response, bringing a hand up to his chin and trying not to smile as the youngest Hamada gives him a pouty glare in response.

"I think so." Tadashi says at last, and Hiro brightens, a wide grin coming to his face as he rushes out, tugging Tadashi behind him.

"Guys! Come check out the new and improved Tadashi 2.0!" Hiro calls, and heads turn to them as Tadashi follows him out with a slight frown.

"2.0 better be referring to the first draft of this  _project_ , Otouto." Hiro gives a wicked smirk in response, and the team laughs in response, eyeing the armor.

"First rate scanners, built in medical supplies, Baymax speaking via communications in his helmet, all at my brother's request," Hiro says with an eye roll, before excitement lights up in his eyes, and he turns to his brother, who in turn rolls his eyes, but holds out an arm, bracing for the blow back as he lock target on empty space, avoiding damaging anything that didn't belong to them. The rocket hand shoots off, with exclamations of surprise from the team, before it returns with the auto pilot.

"Duuude that's totally epic!" Fred says and, Hiro grins at him.

"That's not even the best part." Tadashi turns to his younger brother and gives him  _the look_ , but Hiro ignores him and hops on Tadashi's back with a peel of laughter, and Tadashi is tempted to groan in response, swallowing nervously.

"Hiro, I don't think we-"

"Relax, Tada-nii, don't you trust me?" He says, and Tadashi snaps his mouth shut. Of course he did, but this was going a little far. He glances at his little brother, whose hanging on his shoulder. Hiro gives a thumbs up, and Tadashi sighs in defeat.

"If we die,  _you_  get to tell Aunt Cass what happened." Hiro swallows at that, but doesn't back down as Tadashi activates the wings, which fold out from a storage space on the back, and Tadashi takes a deep breath before activating the ion thrusters under his feet.

They leave the ground slowly, and on instinct Tadashi's hands are out trying to keep balance, the group watching in awe while Fred yelled something about real life Iron Man.

"If you go slow the wings won't have any air to keep you balanced! Pick it up!" Hiro says, and Tadashi agrees with him mentally and puts more power into it. Too much.

The boys shoot off, surprised yells ripping from their throats as the wings catch wind with a jerk and they're sailing through the air unsteadily, until Tadashi manages to get them flying horizontal in a straight line, wary of calling out anymore commands. Tadashi glances up at his brother, only to be met with a cry of,

"Look out!" Tadashi looks back, and reacts on instinct alone, twisting downwards out of the way of the blimp with a surprised yelp from Hiro.

"Tadashi, rules of the road require you to look where you are driving at all times." The voice nearly makes Tadashi jump out of his skin, until he remembered he'd linked Baymax into his communications.

"Yeah, thanks buddy." He mutters, and can hear snickers coming from above him. A grin breaks out onto his face as an idea comes to mind.

Without so much as a word, Tadashi drops into a downward spiral with a thought of,  _'Well I need to practice this anyway,'_  and is greeted with the most high pitched scream he'd ever heard out of his brother, a sound that immediately has him busting up in laughter while trying to concentrate on where he's going, weaving around a sky scraper and through blimps, before coming up to an easy horizontal flight again as laughter starts again from above him.

"This is epic!" His brother says with a breathless laugh, and Tadashi can't help but agree.

He was never going to want to drive anywhere ever again after this.

* * *

They land back at the mansion within fifteen minutes, not wanting to worry their friends who had yet to be linked up with Tadashi and Hiro, and get four different versions of "That was pretty awesome," from each of their friends as they unsuited and headed in for lunch.

"So where do we go from here?" Wasabi asks, forever orderly and in need of a plan, and all heads turn to the Hamada brothers. Hiro looks up at Tadashi with uncertainty, only to find out his brother had actually thought farther down the line.

"We go to Krei Tech."

* * *

"Why did it have to be me again?" Hiro asks as he stares at the rather expensive looking building in front of him. Tadashi stands beside him with a smirk on his face.

"Because he wanted  _your_  microbots, Otouto." He says joyously, and laughter echoes in the ear piece he was wearing as the team listened in. Tadashi, of course, refused to let his little brother go alone, but the entire team would have been too inconspicuous.

"It's the only way we're gonna get to talk to Krei himself." Fred adds, voice loud enough to make both brother wince.

"Alright, alright, I get it." Hiro says sighing, and Tadashi places a hand at his shoulder blades, giving him a small shove.

"Let's go."

The inside of the building is large and spacious, with white walls and large windows, black leather seats and painting neither brother understood adorning the walls, with the occasional sculpture and potted plant. It was silent with the exception of the receptionist tapping on the keyboard. Tadashi stood back and watched as Hiro approached the desk, playing up every bit of his small stature.

"Um, excuse me, sir, but could you help me for a moment?" He asks, a shy smile revealing an adorable tooth gap, and the twenty something man at the desk does a double take.

"Uh, yeah, sure, what's up?" The question is strangely informal for the setting, and Tadashi is having trouble suppressing his laughter.

"I need to talk to Mr. Krei. He wanted to buy something I made." The man at the desk frowns a bit, before saying,

"Look, I'm sorry little guy, but Mr. Krei isn't taking visitors right now. I can schedule an appointment if you want though." Hiro pouts staring up with big brown orbs, and Tadashi swears the kid can't be fourteen and be able to pull that off.

"Could you just give him my name please? I swear he'll wanna talk to me, I know it!" The man cracks and sighs.

"Alright, just a sec." Hiro glances back at Tadashi with a mischievous grin, and Tadashi shakes his head. How much had his brother gotten away with using that? "Alright, what's your name?"

"Hiro! Hiro Hamada!" He says excitedly with a big grin, and the man smiles back as he dials the office number.

"Mr. Krei? Yes sir, I know you don't want any visitors. Yes sir. Yes. But this little boy is insistent that you want to talk to him. Hiro Hamada, sir." The man grins at Hiro. "Yes sir, I'll send him right up!" The man puts the phone o the receiver with a resounding click, and holds a hand over for a high five, which Hiro eagerly returns. "You're in, take the elevator to the top floor, alright?" Hiro nods.

"Thanks mister, uh-" He leans a bit to get a glimpse of the name tag. "Greg!" He turns and runs over to Tadashi, who snickers as they walk to the elevator.

"Oh my- Otouto how much have you gotten away with?" Hiro gives and evil smirk.

"Oh you don't even wanna know Tada-nii." This answer concerns Tadashi slightly, but he doesn't have time to answer as they arrive on the top floor with a ding, and they step out into a large office. Mr. Krei stands from his desk.

"Hiro, it's great to see you again. And you too, ah, what was it, Tadashi?" Tadashi frowns, but doesn't comment.

"Hey, Mr. Krei." Hiro says in response, and Tadashi edges closer to Hiro, dropping a hand on his shoulder. Something about this man just rubs him the wrong way.

"Please, sit." He says, settling back in his own chair, and Tadashi speaks this time,

"Thanks, but no thanks Mr. Krei." His grip on his brother's shoulder tightens slightly, and all of a sudden the heavy weight of dread settles in his stomach. Hiro resists an eye roll, seemingly immune to the change in atmosphere, and settles in a chair, Tadashi hovering behind him. Hiro leans forward, taping at a swinging paperweight and watching it move.

"So, I assume you're here to talk about the microbots? I was really hoping they weren't all destroyed in that fire, it really was ingenious technology." Hiro almost flinches the nonchalant tone he used in describing the fire that almost took his brother from him, eyes hardening a bit.

"Well you'd be assuming wrongly." Hiro says, leaning back into the chair with his hands in his lap. "I wanna know about project Silent Sparrow." Krei freezes for a split second, a movement that both Hamada's catch, before leaning back in his chair.

"Silent Sparrow? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."

"Oh really? The infamous Krei doesn't know the projects  _his own company_ is involved in?"

"I happen to sign off on every project my company invests in, and I don't recall that one being one of them. If you aren't here to discuss terms for selling your microbots, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Krei's tone becomes sharp, and Tadashi tenses. Hiro makes no move.

"I'll leave when you explain you're involvement in a government project." Hiro says nonchalantly, and Krei stands again.

"Now listen here, I am a very busy man and I don't have time for childish shenanigans!" He snaps, and Hiro flinches a bit. "Now either you can escort yourself out or I can have security do it for you!" Hiro opens his mouth to protest, but Tadashi cuts him off.

"We'll be going then, Mr. Krei. Thank you for your time." Tadashi says, tone curt, and he pulls a protesting Hiro out of his chair, pushing him out of the door, into the elevator

"Oh and Tadashi." Tadashi pauses. "You'd best not be going around and asking questions like that." Krei's gaze is dark. "They aren't very well appreciated, and not everyone will react as kindly as I did." With that Tadashi steps in the elevator, and the doors shut, their friends silent on the other line. Hiro throws his hands up.

"How rude!" He yells, and Tadashi sighs tiredly. "Jeez it's a good thing I stole his ID or we'd have come here for nothing!"

"You  _what?!_ " The yell is collective between Tadashi and all other members via earpiece, and both Hiro and Tadashi flinch at the noise level.

"I took his ID when I was fiddling with that thing on his desk. It was just sitting there after all, I figured it come in handy." Hiro examines the buttons on the elevator, before pressing the one labeled archives and sliding the card. It jerks before they start moving down, Tadashi gaping at his little brother. There's indistinguishable chatter over the ear piece before Fred speaks up with,

"Smart thinking little Hamada!" Hiro grins proudly at the praise before the elevator settles, and the doors slide open.

"Going on com silence." Hiro says, and they step out. The room is small, a large terminal with several screens, Hiro strides over at once, grabbing the chair and splaying his fingers on the keyboard, typing rapidly. It takes him a moment to find the files, and another swipe of the ID card by passes security. Several videos pop up on the screen, and on the largest screen in the center one starts to play. Hiro think's something looks familiar about the person there, but he can place it. That is until his brother sucks in a sharp breath behind him, leaning in and partially raising a hand as if to touch the screen. Hiro watches his brother in confusion, which is swiftly replaced by shock at the word that tumbles from his brother's lips in disbelief.

"Mom…?"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: AND IT'S DONE *collapses*. Alright so originally I intended to have 3 chapters this weekend but Thursday I woke up feeling absolutely terrible so I spent most of my four day weekend curled up in bed. Combine that with a really bad case of writers block, and you have a formula for a chapter that took four days to write ._. Anyway I should be back to a weekly updating schedule, so I'll see ya'll next week. Also, I'm aware I promised action, but I just didn't get there this chapter so my apologies! Hope you enjoyed!


	7. Chapter 6

_“Mom?”_

Hiro looks back at the screen in disbelief, the familiar figure moving around on the screen lining up perfectly with pictures Aunt Cass and Tadashi had shown him. His gaze moves back to his older brother, who’s _staring_ at the screen, mind uncomprehending. Then the second figure enters the frame, and Tadashi grabs a chair from the side. It didn’t take much of Hiro’s genius to recognize the second figure as their father.

“Dad? What are they…? Why…?” Hiro had never heard his brother sound more like a scared, confused _kid_ in his entire life. Hiro tears his gaze away from Tadashi and swallows as he places his hands on the keyboard, copying the files and encrypting them, sending them to his personal email as the video on the screen continues to play.

_“This is our first prototype of Silent Sparrow…”_ Their mom’s voice echoes in the quiet room, and nostalgia is like a knife to the heart for Tadashi as he inhales sharply, the voice eleven years lost rekindling old memories in his mind. Their mother holds a data pad in her hand, filling out information, as their father fiddles with a device on the table that looks like a ring approximately the size of stop sign.

“They were involved…” Tadashi whispers, unable to tear his eyes off the screen as bewilderment and melancholy bubble up inside of him, tearing a new, fresh sorrow into his heart with suspicion and longing.

The moment is effectively destroyed when loud alarms sound in the basement level, and Tadashi is snapped back to the present, remembering where he is and what they were doing. A red light filters through the room, flashing on and off, and he gathers his wits about him as Hiro flicks his eyes around the room, a nervous look cascading over his features in an instant. A mixture of concern and adrenaline fill Tadashi; had they been found out? He glances back at the screen, momentarily torn, before turning his gaze to Hiro and solidifying his decision.

“We need to get out of here!” He yells over the alarm. Hiro nods, turns back to the keyboard and swiftly taps out a few more lines of code before shutting it down and rushing after Tadashi.

They’re headed for the elevator when a massive shudder goes through the building, knocking Hiro to his knees and leaving Tadashi to support himself against the wall. Perturbation tangles with fear, and he quickly realizes that they probably weren’t the ones who set off the alarm. Which lead to the question: who was?

His eyes widen as the pieces click, and pulls Hiro to his feet, pushing him away from the elevator and towards the stacks of documents lined on shelves in boxes that gave the appearance of an old storage room as the building shakes again.

The elevator door is wrenched open, and Yokai sails into the room on an azure wave.

Tadashi dives behind a shelf with his younger brother in tow. They stand as quiet as possible, breathing shallow and silent, as Yokai goes to the same computer that they had been at moments ago. Tadashi peers at him from around the shelf, watching in confusion as the masked man tries—and fails—to open the files that had been previously accessed by the duo, slamming his fist down on the machine with a frustrated shout before he stiffens, and Tadashi barely pulls his head back in time to avoid being caught as the man whips around. He glances around suspiciously, before riding the microbots near the shelf where Hiro and Tadashi were.

They both hold their breath.

Yokai pauses in front of a box, pulling it off the shelf and flipping through the contents before seemingly nodding, and dropping the box to be carried out by the wave.

He glances back down the row of the shelf, before heading back the way he came, and the boys barely hold in their sigh of relief.

Yokai pauses by the computer, before gesturing with his hand, lifting it upwards and curling his fingers into a fist, and the microbots following the movement, slamming down on top of the machine, the violent screech of metal and sizzling snap of wires echoing loudly in the empty room. Hiro and Tadashi both flinch, and then the clicking of the microbots fades.

Tadashi peers around the edge cautiously, relieved to find the room empty, and steps out slowly, scanning for any sign of the masked man’s return, before giving a short nod at Hiro to come out, who steps out with wide eyes, staring at the crumpled mess that used to be the main database for the Krei Tech archives.

“Well,” Hiro says nervously, eyes still locked on the tattered remains of the computer. “Yokai is definitely involved with Krei Tech and Silent Sparrow.” Tadashi gives an austere nod, before placing a gentle hand between his brother’s shoulder blades, urging him forward.

“Com’on. Let’s get out of here.”

* * *

 

Neither Hiro nor Tadashi realize they forgot to turn the earpieces back on until they return to the garage, and were ambushed by their equally relieved and pissed off friends. After a few short-lived apologies, they end up sprawled around the garage, Tadashi explaining what had happened, and Hiro unencrypting the emails which had, thankfully, all sent before Yokai had invaded and destroyed the computer.

“He left with some sort of box after destroying the computer where Hiro and I found the files.” Tadashi finished, furrowing his eyebrows. “I don’t know what was in it, but I think we can safely assume it had something to do with Silent Sparrow.” Their group of friends sits silent for a moment, before Honey speaks softly.

“And you parents…? What do you think they had to do with this..?” Tadashi sighs, his shoulders drooping a bit as he gives a half shrug.

“Your guess is as good as mine until we see what’s on the rest of these videos.” Dread left a sour taste in his mouth, and he frowned.

He couldn’t imagine it, his parents being a part of some secret government project that had obviously gone astray for it to be shut down and covered up so hastily. They had never shown anything but love and kindness, they had both been people of science and strong moral, and Tadashi had spent so much of his life trying to live up to that, to become someone like his parents and to teach Hiro the same moral standings and love for science that his parents had shown him. It didn’t make any sense, and the disconnect between what he was being shown and what he’d grown up with was giving him a stressful, depressing mixture of headache and heartache.

“Tadashi?” His thoughts are interrupted, and he turns his head to look at his younger brother, who looks unusually nervous and unsure, and Tadashi shoots him a small, reassuring smile. “I got it, want me to play it now or..?” Hiro leaves the sentence hanging, and Tadashi swallows down his doubts, give a firm nod to his younger brother, and pulling a chair closer to the screen. The video starts to play, and everyone watches with rapt attention as the elder Hamadas come onto the screen, and Tadashi can’t help the breath that still catches in his throat.

“This is our first prototype of _Silent Sparrow_ …” The video continues on, until both of their parents are preparing to start up the device, and everyone stills, Tadashi tensing up and tightening his grip on the back of Hiro’s chair where his hand had come to rest. They all wait as the safeties are checked off one by one, until finally, the machine is ready to boot.

Their mother flicks the switch and… Nothing happens. Both of their parents frown and sigh, before giving each other a familiar, suffering smile that has Tadashi’s throat closing up on him, and he swallows hastily as the video cuts out, and switches to the second trail.

It goes exactly the same; the same intro with a different number, the same boot up and safeties, the same result. In fact, the next sixty-seven trials go exactly the same way, and by the time sixty-eight is loading up, Hiro is rubbing his eyes, the sun has long since set, and Tadashi has a headache throbbing in his skull like no other. He reaches a hand past Hiro, and hits the space bar, pausing it on his mother’s face and staring for a second, before giving a small shake of his head.

“Alright guys,” He starts, adopting his “mother hen” tone as the others called it out of habit, “It’s been a long day and it’s getting late, we all need to get some rest. We can start fresh in the morning.” Everyone mutters agreements, and even Hiro doesn’t argue with Tadashi.

They bid their friends farewell, calling out “drive safe” as they go, before both Hamadas head upstairs to their room. The nightly routine is completed in contemplative silence, and Hiro is sitting on his bed, staring at his notebook as Tadashi unhooks the exoskeleton, when he finally breaks it.

“Hey, Tadashi…” He says, glancing up at his older brother and meeting his eyes, before dropping his gaze once more. “Are you…” He pauses, debating his words, “alright?” He thinks it sounds kind of lame, but he looks up when Tadashi doesn’t give an immediate reply, and takes stock of his brother’s thoughtful face.

Sure, he was exhausted and confused, unable to understand, to put together the reason behind their parents’ involvement in _Silent Sparrow_ , but he also knew his parents. Knew how they raised him and Hiro, the sincerity of their kindheartedness and enthusiasm for discovery, remembered the way they treated him and Hiro, as equals rather than unknowledgeable children, and he couldn’t bring himself to think that those same people could have taken part in such a project without a good reason behind it. His faith in them might have been shaken, but it still remains solid, and even if they prove to be less than what he thought they were, that didn’t mean that he and Hiro were any less, that he couldn’t make up for their mistakes and still teach his little brother how to take a better path. He mulls this over, before giving Hiro a sincere smile, and nodding.

“Yeah, I’m alright.” Hiro shifts uncomfortably.

“Even with all this… stuff about Mom and Dad?” His voice is a bit quieter now, but it still carries, and Tadashi’s answer does not change as Hiro meets his gaze. He thinks about what he’s about to say carefully.

“Sure, I’m confused about why Mom and Dad were involved in whatever this is, but whatever the reason, good or not, it’s not going to change the way I view us or the world, although it might change the way I view them. What about you, are _you_ alright?” Tadashi asks, raising an eyebrow, and Hiro shrugs, fiddling with the notebook in his hands.

“I didn’t know Mom and Dad like you did. It’s different for me than it is for you, I see those people on the screen, and _feel_ like I know them, but I can’t really _remember_. I see the way you keep looking at them, but it’s all just so _foreign_.” He gives another shrugs, shooting a guilty look at Tadashi. “Mostly I just feel guilty ‘cause I don’t really…” he pauses, shifting again, “feel much when I see them.” Sadness washes over Tadashi, and he’s reminded of just how _young_ Hiro is, of how little he was when their parents died, before he resolves to keep on trying to raise Hiro _right_ , give him the life he _deserves_.

“It’s alright Hiro.” Tadashi says soothingly, “No one expects you to feel things for people you can’t even remember. You were young when the accident happened, and even if they were your parents for a short time, it makes sense that you don’t feel particularly attached to them since you grew up with me and Aunt Cass. They might’ve been your parents, but they didn’t raise you.” Silence falls for a moment as Hiro considers this response, before he glances back up at Tadashi, looking considerably more relaxed and relieved.

“Thanks, Tada-nii.” Tadashi grins back at him in response.

“Anytime, Otouto.”

* * *

 

“Here.” Tadashi says, passing a plate to Hiro as he settles in a chair next to the computer monitor. Hiro blindly takes the plate, muttering thanks in response, while filtering through some more of the footage they’d obtained from Krei Tech. They were somewhere in the seventies now, and although the device had gone through some changes in form, some obvious augments being added or subtracted, there was no change in the results. “Anything change while I was gone?”

“I think I saw a spark in one of them.” Hiro states drily, munching on the pizza rolls as the next video is pulled up on an auto-queue, and Tadashi sighs. Hiro glances up at him, before sighing as well and leaning back in his chair in defeat. “I don’t get it, we’re running out of tapes, and right now it doesn’t look like the project was anywhere near where it would have to be to achieve something like teleportation or the creation of an alternate dimension. Why would Yokai be going after some half-started, disbanded for about ten years, shot in the dark project that’s starting to seem like it was virtually unsuccessful?” Tadashi opens his mouth to respond, when the sound whirring machinery catches their attention, and any and all words die in his throat.

The small prototype in the video that was starting to seem like a lost cause was powered up, and emitting a strange blue light that swirled inwards into oblivion, and their parents were moving around frantically, obtaining readings and recording them, before letting out loud cheers.

_“Silent Sparrow is stable, readings are steady, and the containment field is strong!”_ Their mother’s joyous voice throws Tadashi for a loop, before he shakes off the nostalgia, and listens as their parents rattle off some more technicalities, before the portal is shut off, and the tape cuts out. Hiro pauses the queue before it could bring up the next video, and stares up at Tadashi in slack-jawed awe.

“Did they just…” He starts, and Tadashi finishes,

“Discover a new dimension…?” They stare at each other for a minute, before it finally clicks, and Hiro turns back to the computer, pulling up the next video in a rush as if the one they’d just watched was a fluke. The brothers stare as the next scene plays out, and the device is working in a similar manner, now with their parents preparing to put some sort of device through it. Hiro pauses it.

“So… _Silent Sparrow…_ is real..?” Hiro’s voice is a mix of confusion, disbelief, and a hint of fear, and Tadashi just shakes his head, at a loss for words. “Why was it shut down, if they had such a major breakthrough..?” Suddenly, the web page surfaces in Tadashi’s memory, and he swallows.

“Hiro, skip to the last video.” He says, and the severity of his tone has Hiro looking back in confusion, but skipping to the last video despite any protests that he might’ve had. The video loads for a moment, before a much larger ring appears on the screen, looking approximately the size of the entrance to a tunnel you would drive through. His jaw drops, but he says nothing as the recording starts.

_“All readings remain steady! Containment field is secure! We’re ready to start with the first test pilot!”_ Hiro’s eyes widen at their mother’s words, and he sputters,

“Wait, wait, this is—don’t you think—isn’t it way too soon?! These videos aren’t that far apart date wise, shouldn’t they have done—I don’t know—more tests?!” Tadashi shakes his head grimly in response, and continues watching the video. The video flicks to a control room of sorts, and their parents are there, looking grim-faced and hesitant, like they disagreed with the pace of the progress but had no say in the matter of putting a test pilot through. Their mother glances back.

_“Are you sure, sir?”_ She asks, and none other than a younger Krei steps forward, nodding with a prideful grin.

_“Of course, we’ve had enough testing already! Pilot 1, check in! Are you ready?”_ The video cuts to the inside of a pod like vehicle, where a woman is checking off a mental list of requirements and examining the readings on the pod. She looks excited as she calls,

_“Pod 1, good to go! Let’s see what the other side looks like with human eyes!”_ Tadashi swallows, throat tightening. He has a feeling that she wasn’t going to make it back from this trip. Hiro watches in stunned shock as the video continues. A countdown initiates, and the pod, as well as its pilot are sent into the ring without complication.

For a moment, everything is quiet, until the pilot checks in from the other side, and there is loud cheering.

The readings remain steady for a moment. Then the pilot speaks again, sounding distressed, before her transmission cuts out into static. The readings fluctuate wildly and the people behind the control panel start rushing around, rapidly, concern rising amongst the voices, until one panicked voice calls above the rest.

_“The containment field has been breached! It’s failing!”_ After that, a mad scramble starts, and both of their parents are at the controls, fear and dread showing on their faces.

_“Shut it down! Shut the portal down!”_ There’s yelling, and the video cuts to the portal, which remains normal until the blue goes on the fritz, and the recording catches someone yell,

_“You can’t! She’s still in there!”_ Then Hiro and Tadashi’s jaws drop, and they both take an involuntary step back as _something_ crawls out of the portal, looking like the tentacles of an octopus except its dripping viscous black goo that _burns where it touches._ The beast is trying to pull its way through, and flings out a gargantuan limb across the entirety of the lab, spilling more goop along with it.

At the portal, something smaller, but still quite large, squeezes its head through under one of the tentacles coiled around the portal, a scruffy muzzle of some sort with a mixture of fur and feather that was spiked like needles, and Hiro and Tadashi watch in horror as the jaw opens and dislocates, unveiling rows of needle point teeth with a red eye gleaming through the portal, dripping saliva that bubbled at the edge of the portal and a pointed tongue with a hiss that sounded like a scream, a foot or paw slipping through with long, curved, midnight claws that cleaved through the metal on the edge of the portal like it was wax, peeling off strips as it fought for a foothold. More of the beast starts to squeeze through when its suddenly cut off, and the blue swirls inward, sucking the creatures along with it, and then the lab is empty and eerily quiet.

The video cuts back to the control panel, where apparently, the tentacle managed to break the glass and splash goo into the room. A few people don’t look like they are moving, and some of them have the thick dark liquid on them, and Tadashi has to swallow the urge to vomit while Hiro turns away with a gasp, back of his hand pressed against his mouth, a glint of tears in his eyes. Their mother stands breathing heavily with her hands pressed on the control panel, before the video cuts to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's shorter than the others, i know, but i felt like i reached a good stopping point, and i'm still trying to get back in the swing of things.  
> so um, haha, it's been a while... and i don't want to litter you all with excuses... so yeah. new chapter. and i'm not gonna promise anything. i probably won't have a new chapter very soon. i want to, but it depends on a lot of things really, and my motivation has been somewhat lacking, so yeah. hopefully it won't take a full year this time haha. anyhow, hope you enjoyed!   
> also, a very, very grateful thank you to those who commented, it really helped me get my motivation back for this and finish this chapter.


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